More trouble for scam­ster build­ers
Source: Hindus­tan Times
Dated: 1^st July 10

The Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the Delhi gov­ern­ment has registered a second FIR in a scam involving private build­ers, col­on­isers and land developers for allegedly con­vert­ing vast tracts of agri­cul­tural lands into unau­thor­ised colon­ies, in con­niv­ance with gov­ern­ment officials.

The ACB has also writ­ten to all SDMs across the national cap­ital, ask­ing them to give details about the encroach­ments vis-à-vis unau­thor­ised colon­ies in their jur­is­dic­tion and actions taken by them, sources said.
The second FIR men­tions areas covered by unau­thor­ised colon­ies under the jur­is­dic­tion of the Saraswati Vihar rev­enue dis­trict of north­w­est Delhi. Like in the earlier FIR, these colon­ies too have come up after Feb­ru­ary 2, 2007 — the cut-off date for imple­ment­a­tion of the Mas­ter Plan of Delhi (MPD) 2021.

The modus operandi has been simple enough, wherein build­ers and developers con­ver­ted land adjoin­ing the colon­ies (men­tioned in the list of 1,639 colon­ies recog­nised under MPD 2021) into res­id­en­tial plots of land with the help of local author­it­ies. “These plots were sold to people claim­ing that this is an author­ised colony. The gov­ern­ment not just lost rev­enue by way of con­ver­sion charges, regis­tra­tion fees etc, but also spent sev­eral crores of rupees in provid­ing basic amen­it­ies like water and elec­tri­city to these colon­ies,” sources said.

The ACB had registered the first case in this con­nec­tion on June 2, while the second case was registered last week on June 24. Accord­ing to the second FIR, the case has been registered under Sec­tion 13 (1) (d) of the Pre­ven­tion of Cor­rup­tion (PoC) Act and sec­tions 420, 468 and 471 of the IPC. Colonies/areas under the Saraswati Vihar jur­is­dic­tion include Roo­pali Enclave, Anand­pur Dham, Karala vil­lage, Jonti vil­lage, Laad­pur vil­lage, Rama Vihar colony, among others.

MoU on Delhi infra­struc­ture and ITS sys­tems
Source: Itsinternational.com
Dated: 28^th June 10

UK-headquartered TRL and Delhi Integ­rated Multi-Modal Transit Sys­tem (DIMTS) have signed a Memor­andum of Under­stand­ing to enable future col­lab­or­a­tion and knowledge-sharing. DIMTS is a joint ven­ture com­pany set up with equal equity of the Gov­ern­ment of National Cap­ital Ter­rit­ory of Delhi (GNCTD) and Infra­struc­ture Devel­op­ment Fin­ance Com­pany (IDFC). They spe­cial­ise in urban trans­port and infra­struc­ture ser­vices, aim­ing to develop and deliver world class urban infra­struc­ture to the cit­izens of Delhi.

Accord­ing to S N Sahai, man­aging dir­ector and chief exec­ut­ive of DIMTS, “With one of the busiest and fast­est grow­ing cit­ies in the world our trans­port plans have to be both vis­ion­ary and prac­tical. Our links with TRL will ensure that cre­at­ive solu­tions will be used to deliver our ambi­tious plans.”

With this part­ner­ship, TRL will look to assist DIMTS in devel­op­ing solu­tions not only for the ITS that are being imple­men­ted on the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) cor­ridor, but also to help develop future ITS pro­jects that may be car­ried out both within Delhi as well as other states of India. DIMTS and TRL may also explore the pro­vi­sion of sim­u­la­tion cap­ab­il­it­ies for bus driver licence acquis­i­tion and driver training.

Also on the hori­zon are oppor­tun­it­ies for DIMTS and TRL to become involved in capa­city build­ing and train­ing of gov­ern­ment offi­cials who will be involved with the deliv­ery of ITS solu­tions. This will not only help cit­ies develop new trans­port related tech­no­lo­gies but also assist in the cre­ation and applic­a­tion of prac­tical, work­able traffic solutions.

Delhi to get heli­copter ser­vice
Source: Expressindia

Delhi will soon join the élite cit­ies that can boast of an intra-city air ser­vice. Come Octo­ber and Delhi will have a heli­copter con­nec­tion between Rohini in the west and Akshard­ham temple in the east.

As part of its effort to provide top-of-the-line facil­it­ies for the Com­mon­wealth Games and to facil­it­ate smooth move­ment of people, state-run Pawan Hans Heli­copters Ltd (PHHL) will oper­ate flights between these two des­tin­a­tions. “We will have Rohini heli­port as the hub and our flights will ter­min­ate at Akshard­ham temple, which is just next to the Com­mon­wealth (Games) Vil­lage. This will help seam­less trans­fer of sportsper­sons, and offi­cials. Secur­ity agen­cies will also be able to avail the ser­vices at these heli­ports,” said RK Tyagi, chair­man and man­aging dir­ector, PHHL.

Once the ser­vice is in place, cov­er­ing the 31 km between Rohini and Akshard­ham temple would take around 10 minutes, com­pared with nearly two hours it would take by road dur­ing peak hours. The com­pany has car­ried out a detailed sur­vey of the cor­ridors along which the flights would oper­ate. “All neces­sary clear­ances and approvals from the agen­cies con­cerned and Dir­ect­or­ate Gen­eral of Civil Avi­ation are in place to start the oper­a­tions,” Tyagi said.

The heli­ports will also be used by the Delhi Police and other para­mil­it­ary forces that will keep a vigil on the sports com­plexes from the sky. Accord­ing to Tyagi, the pub­lic sec­tor oper­ator will also look at  extend­ing its ser­vices to nearby cit­ies like Agra and Jaipur that attract a lot of tour­ists through­out the year.

PHHL will begin run­ning the ser­vice as a com­merial oper­a­tion only after the Com­mon­wealth Games are over, a PHHL offi­cial who did not want to be named, said. PHHL is also in talks with gov­ern­ments of  Hary­ana and Uttar Pra­desh for land to build 10 – 12 heli­ports in these states to boost heli-tourism.

“Once PHHL is allowed com­mer­cial oper­a­tions, it will help inter­na­tional tour­ists avoid the long drive from the air­port to their respect­ive hotels. This will not only boost tour­ism but ease con­nectiv­ity between city points,” the man­aging dir­ector of Bell Heli­copters India, Wing Com­mander BS Singh Deo , said.

The heli­port at Rohini would includ­ing helipads, park­ing bays, night land­ing facil­it­ies, and main­ten­ance, repair and over­haul facil­it­ies, apart from a train­ing academy.