fact

Feb 7 (Reuters) - India, Asia''s third-largest economy, has embarked on a drive to upgrade its creaking infrastructure of ports, roads and airports as it aims at a double-digit GDP growth in the medium term. Analysts say a woeful lack of infrastructure inhibits faster movement of goods across the country, thereby increasing costs and delays. Various estimates say investment of $150 billion to $200 billion is needed over the longer-term to upgrade Indian infrastructure to levels of other Asian nations. These are a few details about various initiatives taken up by the government. ROADS -- Indian roads carry 85 percent of passenger and 75 percent of freight traffic. Highways, making up just 2 percent of the total road network, carry 40 percent of this traffic. -- Some 14,279 km (10,800 miles) of national highways are being converted to 46 lanes at an estimated cost of 650 billion rupees ($14.7 billion). These consist mainly of: * Construction of a ;Golden Quadrilateral; or roads connecting the four major metros -- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Four laning of 5,000 kms, comprising 85.5 percent of the total length, has been completed. The rest is underway. * Of the total 7,300 km length of the North-South and East-West corridors, a separate project, more than 800 km has been completed and 3,691 km is being implemented. These corridors are targeted to be completed by December 2008. -- The project is being funded through a tax on diesel and petrol sales. AIRPORTS -- India has 450 airports and airstrips including those managed by the defence services and private companies. -- The state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) manages 125 of them. These include 11 international airports, 77 domestic airports, 9 airports for customs department and 28 civilian enclaves at defence airfields. -- Passenger traffic at these airports crossed 50 million in the year to March 2005. Traffic growth is estimated at 12 percent each year between now and 2009. -- More than 85 percent of total passenger traffic was handled by 10 airports, which generate 80 percent of AAI''s revenue. -- Delhi and Mumbai, the two major gateways, account for 49 percent of total passenger traffic and 33 percent of total revenue. -- Only 11 airports are profitable. -- The Delhi airport handled 10.4 million passengers in the year ended March 2004 and the Mumbai airport saw 13.28 million travellers. -- Passengers often face long queues, delayed flights and inadequate service standards during peak hours in most airports. -- The government estimates up to 200 billion rupees ($4.5 billion) is needed over the next five years to bring Delhi and Mumbai airports to international standards. -- Greenfield airports near Bangalore, the technology capital, and the southern city of Hyderabad are being built on a Build Own Operate and Transfer basis under the public private partnership basis. -- Indian carriers have been furiously expanding operations over the past two years, and new airlines have emerged because of booming demand for air travel. Indian companies have placed orders for new planes worth more than $10 billion. PORTS -- India''s 6,000 km natural peninsular coastline, bound by the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal, is dotted with 12 major ports and 185 minor ones. The federal government manages the major ports while state governments run the minor ones. -- The major ports handle 75 percent of traffic. About 80 percent to total volume of port traffic was in the form of dry and liquid bulk. General cargo and containers made up the rest. -- Container traffic grew 15 percent a year in the five years to 200304. -- Indian ports'' capacity stood at 389.5 million tonnes at the end of 200304. Cargo handled by major ports grew 13.6 percent in April-September 2005 to hit 199.8 million tonnes. RAILWAYS -- Indian railway network, one of the largest in the world, at 63,221 km by the end of 2004. Around a third of the network is electrified. -- Revenue-earning freight traffic of the railways rose 10.1 percent to hit 313.5 million tonnes in the first half of the year to March 2006. ELECTRICITY -- India has one of lowest electricity usage levels in the world with per capita consumption as low as 606 units. -- India generated 123,667.821 megawatts of power till Dec. 31, 2005. The country''s electricity demand exceeded supply by 8 percent in non-peak hours and suffers a 10 percent shortfall during peak hours. -- Of its total 35 states and union territories, only 8 states have achieved 100 percent electric connectivity. -- Of its total 593,732 villages, 119,570 are still in darkness. -- Of its 138.27 million rural homes, only 60.18 million have a bulb to switch on. -- India has embarked upon an ambitious plan to add about 100,000 megawatts of electricity by investing 8 trillion rupees by the year 2012.

sb

Steelers beat Seahawks to end 26-year Super Bowl drought by J

by Jim Slater =(PICTURE)= ATTENTION - ADDS information, quotes /// DETROIT, Michigan, Feb 5, 2006 (AFP) - Ben Roethlisberger and Willie Parker ran for touchdowns and Pittsburgh beat Seattle 21-10 Sunday to win Super Bowl 40, ending a 26-year title drought with the most unlikely championship march in American football history. The Steelers were the first sixth seed to reach the Super Bowl after road upsets of top American Conference seeds Indianapolis, Denver and Cincinnati, then completed an amazing playoff run by outlasting the National Conference's kings. Pittsburgh matched Dallas and San Francisco for the all-time record of five Super Bowl triumphs, giving tearful coach Bill Cowher and rusher Jerome Bettis their first National Football League titles in more than a decade of trying. Only four NFL coaches had won more games without claiming a crown than Cowher, whose 14 years with the Steelers is the longest active NFL run by a coach with the same club. "I've been waiting a long time," Cowher said. "We're taking this baby back home and putting it in the trophy room." Parker scored on a 75-yard run, the longest rushing play in Super Bowl history, and Roethlisberger dove one yard for a touchdown to give the Steeler defense all the margin it would need. Roethlisberger became the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl, taking the title from New England's Tom Brady. "Big Ben" improved to 27-4 as a starter and made good on a title vow to Bettis, a 13-year veteran who ranks fifth on the all-time rushing list. The bulky rusher known as "The Bus" vowed to park himself for good after taking the title in his hometown, calling his decision "official like the referee's whistle." "There's always a time when you have to call it quits," Bettis said. "It is an ending. It has been an incredible ride. I came back to win a championship. Mission accomplished. Now I have to bid farewell. "My teammates put me on their back and they wouldn't let me down. They were tremendous." A trick-play touchdown pass involving two receivers gave Pittsburgh a 21-10 lead with 8:56 remaining, collegiate quarterback Antwaan Randle El taking a handoff and flipping a 43-yard throw to Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Hines Ward for the score. Ward finished with five catches for 123 yards. "Antwaan made a great play at the right time," he said. "It was a great pass." That proved to be the final blow. No team in Super Bowl history had rallied from more than a 10-point deficit to win, and since Cowher became coach in 1992, the Steelers had a 100-1-1 record in games they lead by at least 11 points. The Steelers won prior titles in 1975, 1976, 1979 and 1980 but lost their only Super Bowl in 1996 to Dallas in Cowher's only prior Super Bowl. Momentum changed twice on two record-setting plays in the third quarter, the Seahawks seizing back hope just as Pittsburgh appeared ready to take command. Parker raced 75 yards for a touchdown just 22 seconds into the second half to give the Steelers a 14-3 lead. It was the longest rushing play in Super Bowl history, a yard beyond Marcus Allen's 1984 run for the Los Angeles Raiders, and signaled the Seahawks were in trouble. Seattle's Josh Brown then missed a 50-yard field goal and the Steelers drove 53 yards to the Seahawk 7-yard line. But a Roethlisberger throw was picked off by Seattle's Kelly Herndon, who returned the ball 78 yards to the Steeler 20 - the longest interception runback in Super Bowl history, a yard better than Oakland's Willie Brown in 1977. Three plays later, the Seahawks capitalized when Matt Hasselbeck connected with an unguarded Jerramy Stevens on a 16-yard touchdown pass 8:15 into the third quarter to pull Seattle within 14-10. Stevens had sparked a war of words with Steelers linebacker Joey Porter with comments five days earlier, but got the last word in the personal feud by lifting the Seahawks within reach. Seattle coach Mike Holmgren could have become the first coach to guide two different teams to Super Bowl triumphs, having masterminded Green Bay's 1997 victory and guided the Seahawks to their first Super Bowl. Roethlisberger scored a controversial touchdown on a one-yard plunge 1:55 before half-time to give Pittsburgh a 7-3 lead at the break. "Big Ben" barely got the ball over the line before being slammed back by linebacker D.D. Lewis. Seattle protested to video review but referee Bill Leavy, the least likely official to overturn calls made on the field based on past decisions, let the touchdown stand. It was a good omen for the Steelers, since no team in 12 years had won the Super Bowl after trailing at half-time. Josh Brown kicked a 47-yard field goal with 22 seconds remaining in the first quarter to give Seattle a 3-0 lead, but penalties cost the Seahawks chances for more. Darrell Jackson caught a 17-yard pass from Hasselbeck in the end zone but the play was negated when Jackson was whistled for pass interference. A holding penalty also wiped out a first down deep in Steeler territory. The Steelers were only the third team in Super Bowl history without a first-quarter first down. js06bb AFP _060332 FEB 06_

power

Forget about megawatts, Dabol, load-shedding, power generation, adequate rainfall in catchment areas, tripping etc. Leave the verbal jugglery to political honchos and babus who guard their volatile turfs named vote banks, where considerations other than those which makes this world a better place to live in reigns. But shall we just talk sense? Any issues?

The politics of power (a probable euphemism for electricity), which was hitherto confined to the hinterland, has gradually crawled its way to Navi Mumbai, en route to Mumbai, where the powers that be bask in the safe precincts of their haloed fiefdoms.

The other day Mumbai’s airport witnessed a power supply interruption for 10 minutes, which was characteristically dismissed as an aberration.The amount of chaos such an interruption can cause to the airport of the country’s commercial hub in a worse case scenario still remains a mystery, but uneasy questions should have emerged.

Instead, we are now dreaming about a new airport which is supposed to come up in Navi Mumbai, for which the Civil Aviation Ministry has given nod for acquisition of land of around 3,500 acres of land.

The grand development story envisioned by our political masters begins with a trans harbour link connecting Sewri and Naha, an eight-lane road, longest bridge in the country, two railway tracks, all these at the cost of a fortune estimated around Rs 6,600 crore. The deadline to complete the roadmap for the airport project is a cool four years.

Now, imagine all road blocks are cleared by a magic wand that some condescending superhuman power will wield and the airport itself will become a reality.

But how will an airport work without power? Power? Yes, the state is reeling from an cute shortage of power, with many areas parts going without power for more than 12 hours. And there is no new project which is going to generate power – the Chief minister has only put up a request with Centre to set one up again at Ratnagiri, now synonymous with a mega disappointment called Dabhol. Even if the approval is granted this month, it takes at least 5 to 7 years for a power project to be commissioned, going by conventional wisdom.

That means 2011-2013. Things doesn’t work like that fast in this country.

From poor infrastructure to lack of power, the lay man has an innate talent to get used all the miseries of this vast nation.

Forget about mega airports and dream projects, let the state planners use plain common sense to make lessen the level of discomfort by at least fixing a fixed time for power cuts. That is the biggest favour which could be done to the hapless souls in this political graveyard.