February, 2012: when the foundation was laid! Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) has bagged a contract worth Rs 2,854 crore for supply of the Steam Generator Package for three coal-fired thermal units of 660 MW each with supercritical parameters. The order has been placed on Bhel by Nabinagar Power Generation  Company (NPGCL), a joint venture of NTPC and Bihar State Electricity Board, for the upcoming 1,980 MW Nabinagar Supercritical Thermal Power Project (STPP) in Bihar. Significantly, this is the second supercritical thermal power project being executed by Bhel in Bihar, the first being the 2×660... 

    ladder without support? Patna: according to reports, land prices in Bihar continue to soar and the registration department is now able to show collections beyond its wildest dreams. Notwithstanding the confusion over rates of property in and around the state capital, the volume of revenue collected by the registration department in lieu of sale of land and apartments has registered a 50% growth, compared to the same corresponding period last year. According to the statistics of the registration department, the state had earned Rs. 653.51 crore as revenue from the sale and purchase... 

Omkar Realtors and Mumbai’s slum redevelopment business: a case study    Editor’s note: even in an unlikely domain like real estate, it is not just possible but also profitable to maintain the attitude of the retail trader for whom ‘customer satisfaction’ is a very real thing! As real as his bank account and the daily returns. In fact if the biggest retail chains and the traditional corner store have anything in common at all, it is their single-minded focus on customer satisfaction. Such single-mindedness often causes them to ignore employee satisfaction as in the case of Wal-Mart,... 

2016 will see you drive along the Ganga: all the way from Digha to Didarganj!   Patna: this is a tale of urbanism and urbanization in Bihar. It is a tale about the likely ease of movement in and around Patna – the densely packed part of the Patna city will suddenly become accessible to the rest of Patna as it indeed should be. This would bring the inner city more business from visitors who did not step beyond the Patna Science College along the Ashok Rajpath. It is also a real estate story, ensuring that the big realtors in town would huddle to make deals while the smaller fries would... 

Bihar Apartment Ownership Bill passed: another step in urban reform!   Patna: the Bihar assembly yesterday passed by voice vote the Bihar Apartment Ownership (Amendment) Bill, 2011 presented by Urban Development minister Prem Kumar in the House. The House passed the bill after Speaker U N Choudhary rejected a proposal moved by opposition RJD MLAs Ram Lakshan Ram and Akhtarul Imam who had sought to refer the bill to a committee of the House for the consideration. Aiming to regulate the proper construction of apartments in Patna and to protect the interests of the owners, the highlights... 

Bihar does GIS mapping of its major towns to document properties   Patna: according to reports, the state urban development department of the Bihar government is now carrying out geographic information system (GIS) mapping in towns and cities of Bihar.  The move will enable urban local bodies to document the properties in a digitized data bank, leading of course to greater tax collection for the civic bodies. But the benefits to the citizens from this should also be obvious in the context of legal disputes. The main question here however is how the civic bodies are to be enabled to... 

Patna to have 40 km Ganga driveway: from Digha to Fatuha   Patna/New Delhi: according to the latest reports, the finance ministry and Planning Commission have cleared Patna’s 40 km Ganga driveway project, which will cost 2,400 crore. As part of the first phase, the Ganga driveway will cover a 21 km distance from Digha to Didarganj, and the second phase will take the driveway as far as Fatua, a distance of 18 km from Didarganj. The project was forms an integral part of the vision 2021 document for the state and is expected to get environmental clearances soon. Bihar Road Construction... 

Focus Urban Bihar: Nitish does some plain talking!   Patna: according to reports, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar yesterday made some frank admissions about the quality of urban life in Bihar and the state of the Bihar towns. Not mincing words, he pointed out the two outstanding issues of urbanism in Bihar – that of unplanned and unregulated growth in the towns, specifically Patna. Second, he rued the fact that everyone in Bihar wants to own a house in Patna or has to rush to Patna for the smallest of jobs. Nitish gave the example of Uttar Pradesh which has many urban centres and has not... 

Motihari, despite the small town tag to have 3 shopping malls: you can now say ‘WOW’!   Motihari: everyone has noticed in recent past – the sleepy little towns of Bihar are not sleepy anymore and even the village bazaars and Kasbahs in Bihar show signs of the urban rate race. Typically now, on an early morning in a village Bihar you now see rows of commuters on bicycles, motorbikes and autos rushing to work in nearby town offices and shops. And to top all such changes, shopping mall culture has now hit small town Bihar with full force. The giddy consumer is responding with a passion... 

Future Patna: Highlights of building regulations in the master plan for Patna   Patna: according to latest reports in the press, the new master plan for Patna Metropolitan Region [PMR] is going to ensure that further growth in the region sticks to the development control regulations [DCR], 2031. The purpose of the DCR will be to provide a framework for construction in different areas. The rules and regulations will depend on the three main factors – size of the plot, width of road, and prescribed zoning regulations. The main features and the building requirements laid down by the...