Godrej to build India’s first green township in city

Good morning friends.  It will be a good project for the city of Ahmedabad which will build India’s first green township.  Nature is one of God’s best creation.   We should all  care for our nature.  Keep it green.

Godrej Properties Limited (GPL), a real-estate arm of conglomerate Godrej Group, will launch India’s largest and first green township project  in January. The eco-friendly project is coming up near Nirma University on Sarkhej-Gandhinagar road.

Adi Godrej, chairman Godrej Group, said that GPL has inked MOU with Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) programme for the Ahmedabad township project to be developed in a joint venture with local partner Siddhi Group on about 225 acres of land.

Godrej was in town for the company’s forthcoming IPO. Interestingly, Godrej Garden City’ (GGC) is one of the 16 real-estate projects in the world selected by CCI, for climate positive development. Godrej group is also founder member of Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). The company will avail green building ratings for GGC from leading agencies.

The project will completed in a phase manner over next ten years, ending with 20,000 dwellings in the price ranging from Rs 20 to 35 lakh during the initial phases. However, the company also plans to build smaller flats worth Rs 10 lakh in the later stages, he said. The work for the first phase is expected to finish in the next two years with 500 dwelling units, mostly two and three BHK.

Apart from the use of solar power, water recycling and harvesting, GPL would use fly-ash bricks and develop many gardens, including a 10-acres park, said Milind Korde GPL, managing director. Amenities like sports complex, club house, schools, hospitals and high street shopping areas are also planned, he added.

Hyderabad based MP Rao, a green building expert and member of IGBC steering committee, said that as of now there is not a single green-integrated township in the country. In fact, IGBC is working on a draft for Green Neighbourhood Rating System to give ratings to upcoming townships, said Rao. – The Times of India

 

Ahmedabad BRTS gets best MRT award

Good morning friends.  Ahmedabad Bus Rapid Transit System gets the best award.  It was very successful that they gave the award as best Mass Rapid Transit.  Now, more will have the convenience of travelling where they want to go.  Many will benefit on this project. 

It’s official now. Ahmedabad’s Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) is the best ‘Mass Rapid Transit’ (MRT) project in the country. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday will give an award at Vigyan Bhavan to Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited (AJL) for running the best MRT. 

On November 24, former secretary of the Union urban transport department Anil Baijlal, who is the chairman of the award committee, was in the city inspecting the 12.5-km inaugural BRTS stretch. Baijlal was the one who sanctioned Ahmedabad and Pune BRTS projects during his tenure in 2005. “It’s a proud moment for Amdavadis. The credit goes to the commuters and the AJL team who made this project successful. We wanted that Ahmedabad BRTS becomes a model for the country and it has come true,” says municipal commissioner IP Gautam.

Chief planner of BRTS Sivanand Swamy says, “There are 25 buses on the BRTS stretch right now. The concept of Ahmedabad BRTS is influenced by the successful Transmilenio system built in Bogota and Curitiba cities. However, our BRTS is designed to suit Ahmedabad’s specific conditions. The system gives top priority to buses, pedestrians and non-motorized transport.” – The Times of India

 

Fourth Energy Expo begins in Ahmedabad today

Good morning friends.  At Ahmedabad city the Fourth Energy Expo begins today. The event will be for the Future of Indian Power Sector. It’s good to know about it.

The three-day 4th Energy Expo 2009 international exhibition will commence in Ahmedabad on Friday, while India Energy Conclave 2009 began on Thursday under the chairmanship of Sudhir Trehan, Managing Director, Crompton Greaves Ltd.

The Expo will focus on key issues in the energy sector, including power, coal, gas, renewable energy, non-renewable energy, clean and green energy, power transmission and distribution equipments and financing options.

The event will also see the release of the CII–A T Kearney report on ‘Sustaining Growth – Future of Indian Power Sector’. The event is supported by the Ministry of Power, Government of India. The report presents an insight into the changing outlook of the power sector from generators perspective and highlights the success factors for the future.

“The power demand in the base case is expected to grow at a steady rate of 7.5 to 8 per cent till 2017. Further, the low ‘power penetration’ levels indicate large latent/unmet demand. The power markets will have to achieve consistent high growth rates to bring our per capita consumption to comparable levels of some of the other countries,” says the yet to be released report.

The report also presents emerging perspectives across all major fuel types such as thermal (coal & gas), hydro, nuclear and renewable. It also highlights the change in market dynamics in terms of demand-supply, regulations and operational challenges.

The expo is sponsored by the leaders in the energy sector, including WinWinD, Suzlon, ACME, Aggreko, Quippo Rental Energy, Forbes Marshall Enercon India and Adani Power. -Indian Express

Ahmedabad 2nd in walkability index

Good morning friends.  I admit the we are walker-friendly.  I may say that Amdavadis are good walkers. In fact, 40 per cent of them rely on walking to do their daily chores. A Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) report has said that Ahmedabad is second only to Mumbai as far as “walkability” is concerned.

Despite its densely packed population, Mumbai seems more walker-friendly with as much as 55% of its population walking regularly. In spite of the large number of urban “walkers”, WWF’s Alternative Urban Futures Report, to be released at the First Habitat Summit in New Delhi on Saturday, reveals the absence of any emphasis on pedestrians, street culture and walkways as far as urban planning goes. According to the study, Delhi is a pedestrian-unfriendly city, which does not rate walking anywhere near transport although 32% of its citizens mostly get about on foot.

A look at Delhi’s congested footpaths and crumbling sidewalks is proof enough of the pedestrian nightmare.

Even though suburban trains carry thousands of Mumbai commuters to work, the sight of people pouring out of stations onto connecting bridges and walkways is common enough. Mumbai is followed by Ahmedabad where 40% of the people walk to get around, followed by Bangalore at 10% and Kolkata 11%.

The study of 30 Indian cities shows that on an average, almost 40% of all trips in urban India still do not involve motorized vehicles — 28% walked and 11% cycled. The proportion rose sharply in smaller towns since distances were usually small and roads less congested. However, in bigger cities, the proportion of people using conventional public transport was high, and consequently commuters walked the last mile.

For instance, in cities with more than eight million population, 22% walked all the way, 8% used cycles and 44% public transport. – The Times of India

Programmers make Gujarati Operating System a reality (1 of 2)

Good morning friends.  It’s a good thing to know that there are some programmers which will make Gujarati Operating System in reality.  This means that it will be a big and good progress.

A quiet revolution in the confines of a computer’s Disk Operating System (DOS) is causing a stir among the software enthusiasts across Gujarat. Linux and other parallel open source programmers from the state have finally made the dream of an Operating System (OS) in Gujarati a reality.

According to the programmers, the best part of Utkarsh, as the Operating System is called is that like all other open source operating system, it can be freely downloaded from the site www.utkarsh.org.

Kartik Mistry, an IT professional from Ahmedabad and the founding member of the Linux users’ group said: “Utkarsh is a mission to ensure that the benefits of IT reaches every Gujarati through a local language interface and easy to understand software. We developed Utkarsh in 2004 and kept adding various elements to it with the help of several programmers spread across the state and country.”

Meanwhile, Mistry said that among the most important features of Utkarsh is the Gujarati dictionary by prominent UK-based industrialist Ratilal Chandaria. “For the last 20 years, Chandaria did painstaking research to prepare the dictionary, which we have included in Utkarsh’s database. It consists of approximately 1,163,292 words for explaining 1,49,709 Gujarati words with their meaning specified with their grammatical forms,” he added.

Ahmedabad company launches open source logging, reporting solution
Even as the state government is yet to decide if it should go for open source software for official use, an Ahmedabad-based company, Elitcore Technologies, has come up with an open source logging and reporting solution to harness the potential of students.

 

AJL starts issuing free BRTS tickets

Good morning friends.  AJL will start issuing free BRTS tickets.  18,000 tickets were issued from eight bus stops on the opening day .  I’m sure many will avail on that. 

The Ahmedabad Janamarg Limited on Wednesday started issuing free tickets from eight BRTS stops to check the pros and cons of its ticketing system. On the opening day, 18,000 tickets were issued. Within a week, free tickets will be issued from the rest of the 12 BRTS bus stops, where the process of installing the ticketing system is in progress.

The civic body has made free tickets mandatory for BRTS rides to help conductors and passengers adapt to the ticketing system. It will take around two-three seconds to issue a ticket. An AJL official said: “We have started issuing free tickets to test the software of the ticketing system and its performance.

Moreover, we will be able to ascertain how much time passengers will need to buy tickets and board a bus. It will give us a real time experience.” He added, “Another reason behind starting the zero-ticketing system is to train our employees.

As the conductors and the system are new, we need to learn trouble-shooting in advance.”The civic body has purchased 50,000 paper rolls for regular tickets and 75,000 cards for issuing pre-paid cards. The tickets will be issued free of cost till the formal inauguration of BRTS. - AhmedabadMirror

He devises online games to save nature

Good morning friends.  It feels good to know that there will be an online games to save nature.  Those kids, teens and even adult who were enjoying the online games this is the time for you to give importance to our nature.  You will enjoy the online game and at the same time you can help save our nature.

It all starts in the Stone Age. With the passage of time, the human gradually steps into modern times. This online internet game takes one through different stages of evolution and blends fun with information. It has been devised by Pawan Maulik, an alumnus of National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad.

The game makes the player aware that with growing consumption of water and electricity, natural resources will continue to deplete. It ends with the message that resources need to be urgently conserved and we have to save the environment for future generations.

Endless hours in front of the computer screen, clicking on the mouse and crossing different levels might seem a waste of time for many. But Maulik looked at this recreational activity as a teaching tool.

Maulik, a graduate of Toy and Game Design from the NID batch of 2008, is developing online games that give out a social message at the end. “In my research, I found that people did not like to read pamphlets or literature about social messages on environment. I was looking for some way to make these things interesting for the younger generation. It was then that I started exploring the medium of online games and spreading social messages through them,” said Maulik.

Soon after he graduated from the institute, Maulik started a design studio of his own. He was then accepted as an incubatee at National Design Business Incubatee (NDBI) at NID from where he is operating right now. “The games that are under development right now are on  global warming, tree plantation, power consumption, renewable energy and water conservation. The games would go into the public forum and be accessible in a couple of months. I am waiting for funding and as soon as it is through, these games will be available on already existing online gaming websites,” said Maulik.

When asked how does he think this will be help people playing them, Maulik said, “It’s a play way method which has great success. The player, once he reaches the end of the game, will read and know what made him die, which is the crux of the game.” – The Times of India

City to ge two medical colleges

Good morning friends.  It’s a good thing to know that our city, Ahmedabad will get two new medical colleges.  For those students who were not been admitted to other medical colleges in the reason that it was already full, here is your chance.  I’m sure that many will be waiting for that.

Aspiring doctors rejoice. With two more medical colleges likely to come up by next year, Ahmedabad will get around 300 medical seats.

The government plans to start a college at Sola Civil Hospital. It will set up a charitable trust to run the institute. The second college will be set up by Gujarat Cancer and Research Institute. GCRI director Dr Pankaj Shah said, “We will start the college in Swadeshi Mill Compound in Asarwa next academic year.”

Ahmedabad already has three medical colleges — B J Medical College at Civil Hospital, NHL Medical College at V S Hospital and AMC Medical College at L G Hospital — that offer 550 seats. Two new medical colleges are likely to be set up in Patan and Valsad.

Confirming the government has approached them, Medical Council of India (MCI) president Dr Ketan Desai said, “We have received Gujarat government’s proposal to set up four colleges. The colleges each have 150 seats each. Classes will begin by 2010.”

There are already 13 medical colleges in the state that offer 1,905 MBBS seats.  – Ahmedabadmirror

Gujarat’s 1st Nano owner owns ’48 Morris

Good morning friends. It’s a beautiful morning.  Hope that your morning will be beautiful too for the whole day.  I was reading an article about Gujarat’s first Nano owner who owns  ’48 morris.  It’s not just about the owning of the car here, its that I want to give emphasis of the gladness of one person when he gets what he wants. 

When Chandrasinh Parmar, a Surendranagar-based entrepreneur wanted to buy a car in 1976, he went for a Morris. Parmar, 60, who runs a cooking gas agency, had got the vintage car cheaper than an Ambassador or a Fiat then. “I bought a 1948 model for Rs 5,500 as a new car would have cost much more,” he said.

On Tuesday, he accompanied his son Umangsinh, 30, who became the first buyer of Tata’s Nano in Gujarat, much before Gujarat itself starts rolling out the small car from the Sanand plant later this year. “We own four cars, including the vintage Morris. But, I feel really special today with a Nano,” said the younger Parmar, who drove down from Surendranagar with his father to take delivery.

“I was eager to buy this car ever since Ratan Tata made an announcement. Today, my dream has come true,” said Parmar, who drove back to Surendranagar where his arrival was eagerly awaited late in the evening. “My family is dying to take a Nano ride,” he told TOI, flashing the car keys.

Four cars were delivered in Ahmedabad on Tuesday as the dealer coped with a big rush. Vipul Thakkar, a Gandhinagar-based doctor, came along with 25 relatives to take the small car delivery. The Thakkars, who already own a Santro, celebrated the buy with an ice-cream party at their Sector-3 residence which was crowded by curious onlookers. Ahmedabad-based doctor, Mahendra Goswami, who drives a Maruti Esteem, also became a proud Nano owner.

“I decided to buy this car when Tata chose Gujarat over other states to set up the Nano plant,” he said. The fourth owner, a retired Air Force official, too owns three cars. Charanjeet Singh Walia, 68, drove down from Gandhidham in Kutch to pick up the car. “I wanted to become a part of this revolution,” said Walia, who was accompanied by his twin daughters. Tata Motors is likely to deliver nine more cars in next four days in the city. – The Times of India

Ahmedabad city cops to get Rs 51L reward

Good morning friends. It’s a good thing to know that Ahmedabad city cops will have  Rs 51L as a reward. This kind of thing will sure give more inspiration for all cops to search for any information on the series of bombing blasts. 

The suspense over who would get the Rs 51-lakh reward announced by the state government for giving information on the serial bomb blasts that claimed 59 lives in the city last year, will soon be over. The state government has settled to give the reward to Ahmedabad city police, particularly the crime branch, finding it the most deserving one for the coveted prize.

The office of the director general of police has asked the city police to send a proposal for the same. Last year after the bomb blasts, the government had announced the reward because the nature of the terror operation and similar serial blasts in Jaipur and Bangalore had remained undetected.

After the reward announcement, within days, the Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Bharuch police, in a joint operation started making arrests in the 26/7 serial bombings. One of the firsts to be nabbed was Abu Bashar. At that time, the then DGP PC Pande was asked in a press conference as to who would get the reward and he had jokingly said the reward money should go to him for heading the team which cracked the case.

After this, different agencies claimed that it was because of them that the blast case was solved, but nobody had sent any official proposal.

Six months back, senior city police officers met Chief Minister Narendra Modi and raised the pitch for Ahmedabad city crime branch.

Sources in Gandhinagar told TOI that the only reason for keeping the reward was kept a secret as it would have hampered the ongoing probe. Those who did not get it would have sulked and the investigations would have suffered, they said.

Now that it has been a year since the blasts, and most of the probe is over, it has been decided to give the reward to Ahmedabad police. The DGP office has sent two reminders to the city commissionerate to send the formal proposal. A senior officer said, “Because of the hooch tragedy, the proposal was put on hold. In a few days, a detailed report of those who contributed to the probe will be sent to Police Bhavan.”  - The Times of India