Explore Business Standard
Transport
The Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) on Thursday said it is developing a rating system to assess the performance of contractor firms engaged in National Highways works. The ministry, in a concept note, said that for rating purposes, the contracts would be divided into three classes: projects of Rs 100 crore or more up to Rs 300 crore; projects of more than Rs 300 crore up to Rs 1,000 crore; and projects of more than Rs 1,000 crore. The note said rating exercise shall be done once in a year, in the first iteration, eligible projects up to February 15 will be taken up and preferably rated by March 31, and thereafter, for eligible projects up to November 15 and preferably rated by December 31 every year. "Accordingly, rating of contractors/concessionaires would also be done in classes," it said. According to the concept note, ratings for Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) and Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) projects shall be conducted together, whereas ratings
The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited has requested the Railway Board to provide additional wagons suitable for its truck-on-train service, officials said on Sunday. The truck-on-train (ToT) service enables the transportation of trucks and milk tankers on specially designed wagons. It was launched on the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor on September 18, 2023 and plies between Rewari in Haryana and Palanpur in Gujarat. The service significantly reduces transportation cost and time, traffic congestion, and air pollution, among other benefits. Officials said that nearly a year after the launch, the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL) wrote to the Railway Board seeking more wagons to tap its growing business potential, and has been pursuing the request since then. However, the Railway Board is yet to fulfil it. Industry sources said the ToT service requires a specially-designed Flat Multi-Purpose (FMP) wagon, which is currently being
A leading Norwegian public transport operator has said it will introduce stricter security requirements and step up anti-hacking measures after a test on new Chinese-made electric buses showed the manufacturer could remotely turn them off. Transport operator Ruter said test results published last week showed that Chinese bus maker Yutong Group had access to their control systems for software updates and diagnostics. In theory, this could be exploited to affect the bus," it said. The tests with buses driven in underground mines to strip away external signals were conducted both on brand-new Yutong buses and on three-year old vehicles from Dutch bus manufacturer VDL, the company said. It said the tests showed that the Dutch buses didn't have the ability to conduct over-the-air software updates, while the Chinese-made buses did. Yutong did not immediately respond to requests from The Associated Press on Wednesday seeking comment. The Guardian newspaper, which reported on the issue,
Strict action has been initiated against those people who circulate fake videos targeting railways on social media, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Sunday after reviewing crowd management measures at Anand Vihar railway station in Delhi. While speaking to mediapersons, he also appealed to people not to circulate fake videos as this creates confusion among passengers. Vaishnaw conducted a surprise inspection of Anand Vihar station to ensure passenger safety and convenience during the festive season. "The minister inspected the holding area at the station and also directly interacted with passengers. During the interaction, he took feedback from passengers regarding the cleanliness of the station premises and the facilities being provided," a press note from the railway ministry said. According to the press note, the railways have made comprehensive arrangements to ensure that passengers do not face any inconvenience despite the huge rush. "Passenger convenience and safety
In a move to regulate the movement of e-rickshaws, known as totos in West Bengal, the state Transport department has made vehicle registration mandatory. A transport department statement said on Saturday that all e-rickshaws should have a digitised temporary toto enrollment number (TTEN) and the process must be completed by November 30. The process for registering under TTEN will start on October 13. A new portal will track registered e-rickshaws using QR codes, allowing the authorities to monitor vehicle activity and prevent new illegal totos from operating. Transport Secretary Saumitra Mohan said the government is cracking down on unregistered and unsafe e-rickshaws, and district magistrates have been instructed to identify and remove unregistered battery-operated e-rickshaws manufactured by local garages. "Many of these e-rickshaws don't abide by the Central Motor Vehicles, 1989 guidelines and hence the district authorities will issue notice for sealing those units which don't
Hindustan Construction Company Ltd (HCC) on Tuesday said it has signed an agreement with Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd (KRCL) to jointly execute large-scale railway and multi-modal transport infrastructure projects across India and international markets. The company in a statement said the MoU establishes a framework for long-term collaboration that brings together complementary strengths of both organisations. Together, the partners will deliver integrated, end-to-end solutions across the full spectrum of transport infrastructure, including civil works, track laying, signalling, electrification, MEP systems, operations and maintenance, and other critical components of modern transport networks, it added. According to the statement, the partnership will particularly focus on complex assignments such as underground and elevated metro systems, NATM tunnelling, railway bridges, and large-scale EPC contracts. Commenting on the development, Arjun Dhawan, Vice Chairman & Managing ...
The State Transport Authority (STA) in Maharashtra has granted approval for provisional licences to the parent firms of app-based taxi aggregators Ola, Uber, and Rapido for bike taxi services in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and fixed a minimum fare of Rs 15 for 1.5 kms, officials have said. As per the minutes of an STA meeting, the approval has been granted on the condition that these companies apply for permanent licences within a month, fulfilling all terms and conditions prescribed in the Maharashtra Bike Taxi Rules 2025. ANI Technologies Private Limited, Uber India Systems Private Limited, and Roppen Transportation Services Private Limited, the parent companies of Ola, Uber, and Rapido, respectively, have been given approval. In the last two months, the transport department received four applications to launch bike taxi services in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). But it approved provisional licences for only three companies. The STA rejected Smart-Ride's application for
Uttar Pradesh Transport Minister Daya Shankar Singh on Sunday said 12,200 villages that are currently deprived of state roadways bus service will be connected with public transport facilities in the next one year. Singh also said that 23 bus stations in the state are being developed on the lines of airports. "12,200 villages in the state that are currently deprived of state roadways bus service will be connected with transport facilities within a year," Singh said while talking to PTI here. He said UP is playing a leading role in the country in the transport sector. "The state is at the forefront in terms of transport policy. We are leading in issuing driving licences, and rank third in automated testing stations. In the next six months, we will also secure the top position in this area," he said. The minister said that 23 bus stations in the state are being developed on the lines of airports, with rapid progress underway. Around Rs 1,000 crore is being spent on the modernisation
Employees of Karnataka's state-owned transport corporations began an indefinite strike on Tuesday morning, severely affecting public bus services across the state and leaving passengers in the lurch. The unions went ahead with the strike despite a court stay against the agitation, underway pressing demands including wage revision. Buses remained parked at depots and only a few were seen running, as some staff chose not to participate in the strike. Some buses in rural areas operated as a few drivers opted to work for the convenience of students to ferry them to their schools, said sources in the transport department. The transport corporations are learned to have roped in trainee bus drivers to manage the situation. Bus stands in major cities like Bengaluru, Chikkamagaluru, Raichur, Chitradurga, Hubballi, Dharwad, Belagavi, Mangaluru, Mysuru, Tumakuru, Hassan, Madikeri, Shivamogga, and Kalaburagi saw heavy passenger rush, with thousands stranded and struggling to find alternate wa
The termination of two contracts for Corridor-2 and Corridor-4 of the Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project (BSRP) by Indian multinational conglomerate Larsen & Toubro is a clear violation of agreement conditions, said officials of K-RIDE, a joint venture between the government of Karnataka and the Ministry of Railways, on Saturday. L&T had terminated the contract on July 31, added K-RIDE. "L&T has made unreasonable demands of revising contract price within the contract period and converting EPC contract into an itemised Bill of Quantities (BOQ) contract, even though contract condition does not permit the same," stated a press release issued by K-RIDE on Saturday. According to the release, L&T had entered into two agreements to perform the work assigned to them in the Corridor-2 (Chikkabanavara to Benniganahalli) and Corridor-4 (Heelalige to Rajankunte) of the suburban railway project, added the release. Originally, the scheduled completion time for Corridor-2 (C2) was 27 ...
Ebix Technologies, Indian subsidiary of Eraaya Lifespaces, on Tuesday announced securing a Rs 140 crore contract from Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation for the first state-wide rollout of the National Common Mobility Card for concessionaires in India. Once fully operational, the project is expected to clock transactional volumes to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore annually, boosting the entity's digital transaction ecosystem and passenger convenience, Ebix Technologies Limited, earlier known as EbixCash, said in a statement. In November 2022, the company was awarded a contract to supply and maintain 38,622 Android-based Electronic Ticketing Machines (ETMs) integrated with an online reservation system. This mandate has successfully facilitated the issuance of approximately 220 crore passenger tickets in the past two years, Ebix Technologies said, adding that this network spans MSRTC's fleet of over 16,000 buses, serving more than 13 crore passengers monthly across urban and rura