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Indian Express
24-06-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Govt plans to bring legislation to allow one-guntha plots in residential areas
Maharashtra Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said that the government plans to bring legislation to allow one-guntha (1,080 sq ft) plots in residential zones, in the upcoming monsoon session of the Legislative Assembly. 'We are introducing legislation in the Monsoon Assembly session that will allow legal subdivision of a one-guntha plot in residential zones,' the minister told mediapersons Delhi Monday. The legislation entails simplifying the process of sub division of revenue land. It aims to divide large parcels lands into smaller plots for residential and commercial, agricultural purposes. Bawankule said that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has directed an amendment to the existing land-plot prohibition law in state. 'During the monsoon session, we will also work on 'One State One Registration' and vertical-ownership initiatives,' Bawankule added, highlighting the government's aim to simplify land records and facilitate shared property models. Bawankule, during his Delhi visit, met Union Energy Minister Manohar Lal Khattar to discuss the rehabilitation of residents from Kumbhari village in connection with the NTPC project in Nagpur's Mouda Taluka. 'Just as agricultural land was acquired, their houses must be rehabilitated in the same way. The visit was to discuss that with Khattar,' he said.
Indian Express
07-06-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
‘Will launch pilot project to install solar houses in Haryana soon': Khattar on Vij's proposal
The Ministry of Power 'will soon launch a pilot project to install solar houses across Haryana', Union Energy Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said on Friday, adding that if successful, it will eventually be expanded to other states. A solar house, also known as a solar home system (SHS), utilises solar panels to generate electricity from sunlight, which can then be used to power a home's electrical needs. The system can either be on-grid (connect to power grid) or off-grid (operate independently of grid). The announcement came after Haryana Energy Minister Anil Vij — during the Regional Power Conference with northern states and union territories, in Chandigarh on Friday — suggested the construction of solar houses in Haryana villages, to 'meet farmers' rising power needs'. Currently, many in Haryana villages have 10-kilowatt (kW) solar panels, Vij said. 'For higher capacity needs, dedicated solar houses will be more feasible. They require reliable electricity supply for agricultural activities, regardless of the source — solar, Bhakra or power central pool. Thus, a comprehensive solar project should be implemented to benefit all the stakeholders.' 'The state government has been working on promoting the use of solar energy across Haryana, so that it becomes self-reliant in the power sector. The Energy Department should run a pilot project to install solar houses across Haryana, and if successful, it could be expanded to other regions of the state,' Vij added. Khattar said India's renewable energy share in the total installed power capacity has increased to 49 per cent in April 2025 from 32 per cent in 2014. The minister said states should also work on having an adequate power generation mix, including the addition of nuclear generation capacity while meeting their resource adequacy plan. He also pointed out that states should complete the installation of prepaid smart metres in government establishments and colonies by August 2025 and for all commercial, industrial and high-load consumers by November 2025. States should work towards listing power sector utilities to generate additional resources and improve transparency and governance, the minister noted. 'We successfully met a peak demand of 250 GW in May 2024 and India has transformed from power-deficit to a power-sufficient nation and as of today, peak demand shortage is zero,' he said. He outlined the importance of continuous cooperation and coordination between central and state governments in achieving the goal of Viksit Bharat by 2047. India's peak electricity demand is projected to reach 446 GW by 2034-35 and meeting this sustainably requires proactive planning and continued coordination between the centre, states, and stakeholders, the minister said. He also advised states to implement Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) Guidelines and urged them to form dedicated teams for this critical planning. The minister highlighted the importance of cyber-security measures and islanding schemes as effective measures to prevent power outages due to cyber concerns and enable the resilience of the grid. Earlier, Vij urged Khattar to approve the 'viability gap funding for a 600 megawatt-hour (MWh) Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) in Haryana', while requesting 'early approval' for Rs 3,179.47-crore proposals under the Revised Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) to strengthen supply systems in Sonepat and Jhajjar, and Rs 142 crore for the pending proposal of a 33 kV substation augmentation under the LRP plan. The Haryana Energy Minister also proposed a policy to 'regulate the installation of poles, substations and transmission lines' on agricultural fields and residential areas, in a bid to prevent inconvenience to stakeholders, while suggesting 'underground cabling' in densely populated or sensitive areas. The meeting was attended by Anil Vij ( Energy Minister, Haryana), Harbhajan Singh ( Power Minister, Punjab), Subodh Uniyal (Forest Minister, Uttarakhand), A K Sharma ( Energy Minister, Uttar Pradesh), Ashish Sood (Power Minister, Delhi), Javed Ahmad Rana (Jal Shakti, Environment & Forest & Tribal Affairs, Jammu & Kashmir) and Heeralal Nagar (Energy Minister of State, Rajasthan).
Hans India
29-05-2025
- Business
- Hans India
Rajasthan CM to hold meeting with Union Minister on urban and energy projects
Jaipur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma is scheduled to hold an important meeting with Union Energy, Housing, and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday in Delhi. The meeting is expected to play a crucial role in accelerating major infrastructure and energy projects in Rajasthan. The meeting reflects the continued efforts to strengthen the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'double engine' governance model, aimed at coordinated development through active collaboration between the Centre and states. Accompanying the Chief Minister to Delhi will be senior Rajasthan government officials, including Energy Secretary Aarti Dogra and UDH Secretary Vaibhav Galaria. The agenda for the meeting includes detailed discussions on Jaipur Metro Phase-2, E-bus network expansion, Smart battery storage projects and Urban development initiatives under the NCR Planning Board. The Chief Minister recently approved the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for Jaipur Metro Phase-2, which aims to enhance north-south connectivity across the city through modern, high-speed public transportation. The proposed 42.80 km corridor will have 36 stations, 34 elevated and 2 underground, and will stretch from Todi Mode to Prahladpura. Key areas to be covered include Jaipur International Airport's new terminal, VKI and Sitapura Industrial Areas, Vidyadhar Nagar, SMS Hospital and Stadium, Collectorate and Proposed Inter-State Bus Terminal (ISBT). The project carries an estimated cost of Rs 12,260 crore, with financing support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Implementation will be overseen by the Rajasthan Metro Rail Corporation, a 50:50 joint venture between the central and state governments, which will also handle all future metro initiatives in the state. In addition to the metro project, the meeting will also address the rollout of an electric bus network, smart battery storage systems, and various urban development projects under the NCR Planning Board. These initiatives are expected to bolster Rajasthan's push for sustainable urban transport and improved living standards in growing urban areas.
Euronews
19-03-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Azerbaijan and Israel strengthen ties with gas exploration deal
Azerbaijan is set to increase its involvement in Israel's energy sector, following a visit by Azerbaijani officials to Jerusalem. A delegation led by Mikayil Jabbarov, Azerbaijan's minister of the economy, recently held talks in Israel to finalise a key gas exploration deal. The Azerbaijan State Oil Company (SOCAR) was awarded exploration rights by Israel in 2023. However, progress in the exploration of natural gas off the Israeli coast has been delayed by the war in Gaza, which began in October 2023. On Monday, Israel granted exploratory licences to a consortium consisting of Azerbaijan's SOCAR, the UK's BP and Israel's NewMed Energy. SOCAR will search for gas in Zone I, a 1,700 square kilometre area in the north of Israel's economic waters. This will be SOCAR's first drilling undertaking outside of Azerbaijan. A memorandum of understanding was also signed between SOCAR and the Israeli company Union Energy on joint exploration activities in Israel's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), Jabbarov said. In a separate development, SOCAR announced on 31 January that it had signed an agreement with Union Energy to acquire a 10% stake in the Tamar project, one of the largest offshore gas fields in the Mediterranean. SOCAR invests in Israel's Tamar offshore gas field and is now expanding its involvement with new exploration licenses. Stuck in space no more, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams returned to Earth on Tuesday evening local time, hitching a different ride home to close out a saga that began with a bungled test flight more than nine months ago. Their SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico in the early evening, just hours after departing the International Space Station. Splashdown occurred off the coast of Tallahassee in the Florida Panhandle, bringing their unplanned odyssey to an end. Within an hour, the astronauts were out of their capsule, waving and smiling at the cameras while being hustled away in reclining stretchers for routine medical checks. It all started with a flawed Boeing test flight last spring. The two expected to be gone just a week or so after launching on Boeing's new Starliner crew capsule on June 5. So many problems cropped up on the way to the space station that NASA eventually sent Starliner back empty and transferred the test pilots to SpaceX, pushing their homecoming into February. Then SpaceX capsule issues added another month's delay. Sunday's arrival of their relief crew meant Wilmore and Williams could finally leave. NASA cut them loose a little early, given the iffy weather forecast later this week. They checked out with NASA's Nick Hague and Russia's Alexander Gorbunov, who arrived in their own SpaceX capsule last fall with two empty seats reserved for the Starliner duo. Wilmore and Williams ended up spending 286 days in space — 278 days longer than anticipated when they launched. They circled Earth 4,576 times and had travelled 121 million miles (195 million kilometers) by the time of splashdown. 'On behalf of SpaceX, welcome home,' radioed SpaceX Mission Control in California. 'What a ride,' replied Hague, the capsule's commander. "I see a capsule full of grins from ear to ear.' Dolphins circled the capsule as divers readied it for hoisting onto the recovery ship. Once safely on board, the side hatch was opened and the astronauts were helped out, one by one. Williams was next-to-last out, followed by Wilmore who gave two gloved thumbs-up. Wilmore and Williams' plight captured the world's attention, giving new meaning to the phrase 'stuck at work" and turning 'Butch and Suni' into household names. While other astronauts had logged longer spaceflights over the decades, none had to deal with so much uncertainty or see the length of their mission expand by so much. Wilmore and Williams quickly transitioned from guests to fully-fledged station crew members, conducting experiments, fixing equipment and even spacewalking together. With 62 hours over nine spacewalks, Williams set a record: the most time spent spacewalking over a career among female astronauts. Both had lived on the orbiting lab before and knew the ropes, and had also brushed up on their station training before rocketing away. Williams became the station's commander three months into their stay and held the post until earlier this month. Their mission took an unexpected twist in late January when President Donald Trump asked SpaceX founder Elon Musk to accelerate the astronauts' return and blamed the delay on the Biden administration. The replacement crew's brand new SpaceX capsule still wasn't ready to fly, so SpaceX subbed it with a used one, hurrying things along by at least a few weeks. After splashdown, Musk offered his congratulations via X. NASA's Joel Montalbano said the space agency had already been looking at various options when Trump made his call to hurry the astronauts home. Even in the middle of the political storm, Wilmore and Williams continued to maintain an even keel at public appearances from orbit, casting no blame and insisting they supported NASA's decisions from the start. NASA hired SpaceX and Boeing after the shuttle program ended, in order to have two competing U.S. companies for transporting astronauts to and from the space station until it's abandoned in 2030 and steered to a fiery re-entry. By then, it will have been up there more than three decades; the plan is to replace it with privately run stations so NASA can focus on moon and Mars expeditions. 'This has been nine months in the making, and I couldn't be prouder of our team's versatility, our team's ability to adapt and really build for the future of human spaceflight,' NASA's commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said. With Starliner still under engineering investigation, SpaceX will launch the next crew for NASA as soon as July. Stich said NASA will have until summer to decide whether the crew after that one will be flown by SpaceX or Boeing — or whether Boeing will have to prove itself by flying cargo before people again. Both retired Navy captains, Wilmore and Williams stressed they didn't mind spending more time in space — a prolonged deployment reminiscent of their military days. But they acknowledged it was tough on their families. Wilmore, 62, missed most of his younger daughter's senior year of high school; his older daughter is in college. Williams, 59, had to settle for internet calls from space to her husband, mother and other relatives. 'We have not been worried about her because she has been in good spirits,' said Falguni Pandya, who is married to Williams' cousin. 'She was definitely ready to come home.' Prayers for Williams and Wilmore were offered up at 21 Hindu temples in the U.S. in the months leading up to their return, said organizer Tejal Shah, president of World Hindu Council of America. Williams has spoken frequently about her Indian and Slovenian heritage. Prayers for their safe return also came from Wilmore's Baptist church in Houston, where he serves as an elder. Crowds in Jhulasan, the ancestral home of Williams' father, danced and celebrated in a temple and performed rituals during the homecoming. After returning in the gulf — Trump in January signed an executive order renaming the body of water Gulf of America — Wilmore and Williams will have to wait until they're off the SpaceX recovery ship and flown to Houston before reuniting with their loved ones. The two NASA astronauts will be checked out by flight surgeons as they adjust to gravity, officials said, and should be allowed to go home after a day or two.
