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BY S VENKAT NARAYAN Our Special Correspondent

 NEW DELHI, July 30: Delhi’s second international airport, known as the Noida International Airport (NIA), will enter the construction stage in August for its main terminal building and runway. They have to be completed within the next 25 months. Its deadline for launching commercial flights is September 29, 2024.It will be Asia’s biggest airport and the fourth largest in the world. The distance between the present Delhi airport and the NIA is 31km.

 The building and the runway will be built by Tata Project Limited (TPL), which has been awarded the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for NIA.A spokesperson for Yamuna International Airport Private Limited (YIAPL), the special purpose vehicle of NIA concessionaire Zurich AG, said the terminal building and runway will be ready by the last quarter of 2024. The agreement has a stiff penalty clause of one million Indian rupees per day if the deadline is missed as per the agreement signed by the Government of Uttar Pradesh and Zurich AG.

NIA, which will become the second international airport in the National Capital Region (NCR) is meant to handle 12 million passengers annually. Besides the terminal building and the 3,900-metre-long runway, Tata Projects will also construct airside infrastructure, roads, utilities, landside facilities and other ancillary buildings.

The entire airport project is slated to be built over four phases by the end of 2061. By the end of the 40-year concession period of Zurich AG, there will be two terminal buildings and an equal number of runways. The airport master plan is prepared to accommodate the demand throughout the 40-year concession period with two runways.

The airport will open with a single runway and a terminal capacity to handle 12 million passengers per year. By the end of the concession in 2061, it will be developed with two parallel runways and additional terminal capacity to serve 70 million passengers, said the official.

The initial terminal building will cover 102,000 sqm. The second one is envisaged to be much bigger, about three times in size. The plan for the second runway accommodates a bigger strip of 4,150 metres. “We also plan to develop a ground transportation centre that will feature a multimodal transit hub, housing metro and high-speed rail stations, taxi, bus services and private parking,” the official added.

 The UP government is still exploring options to connect the airport, which is in Jewar off the Yamuna Expressway, to Noida and Delhi. Metro is one of the options being explored.

In its first monthly report to NIAL, the state government’s special purpose vehicle to oversee and coordinate on the airport project, Engineers India Limited (EIL) has informed that construction of a support building has started at the airport site. Besides that, an 11kV capacity substation has also been set up at the site to meet the initial power requirement of the airport, officials said.

EIL has been appointed to oversee construction work of the airport. NIAL CEO Arun Vir Singh said: “The boundary wall work of the airport is almost complete. The airport is also expected to get an explosive licence by next month as fuel will be stored at the site.”

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While many other state-sector professionals including medical specialists and other health workers are spending days and nights in fuel queues, engineers of the Ceylon Electricity Board are not feeling the pinch thanks to the government giving priority to supplying fuel for power generation, a senior Power and Energy Ministry official said.

Despite everyone else undergoing untold hardships trying to find fuel, CEB engineers have been happily tapping into the large diesel stocks at the Kelanitissa power plant to top up their fuel tanks, we reliably learn.

An official said: “Ironically, CEB has no rupees to pay CPC even when the Treasury scrapes the bottom of the barrel to find the dollars to pay for fuel imports. Therefore, CEB is forced to get short-term loans from commercial banks at exorbitant interest rates, generally above 30%, to pay for its fuel and monthly salaries and generous allowances of its employees.”

Several CEB employees contacted by The Island including veteran trade unionist Ranjan Jayalal were of the view that it is criminal for the CEB to use diesel supplied by the government for power generation to pump fuel into engineers’ vehicles.

Such supplies are often made at the cost of depriving other critical needs such as public transport, school vans, and the haulage fleet bringing daily essentials like fish and vegetables to urban centers. But some of the power generation fuel is used to maintain the lifestyle of a set of privileged state employees.According to these CEB employees, long lines of CEB vehicles used by engineers have become a common sight at the Kelanitissa power station. These vehicles often carry barrels and other containers to take additional diesel supplies.

These employees complain that although diesel is issued from the Kelanitissa storage under the guise of supplying the essential needs of maintenance and breakdown vehicles, only a small fraction of that fuel is allocated to CEB’s field vehicles.The engineers in the meantime have an almost unrestricted supply of diesel for their official and private travel (sometimes including daily travel of their spouses), despite the people agonizing in long fuel queues all over the country.

In fact, the CEB has been advising its customers that the time taken to attend to breakdown complaints will be longer because its maintenance vehicles cannot get sufficient fuel.

CEB engineers are allowed to commute between their homes and workplaces, subject to a maximum of 20 km each way plus additional private travel allowance ranging from 600-900 kilometers per month at board expense. But some engineers travel to Colombo daily from places like Wennappuwa, Negombo, Panadura, and even more distant places like Ratnapura. Apparently, the fuel shortage has not deterred these engineers from economizing on fuel use despite the current crisis thanks to diesel stocks at Kelanitissa intended for power generation.

It is understood that when the CEB General Manager recently announced that the private mileage allowance of engineers would be reduced by 50%, engineers protested vehemently. Many CEB employees question why this decision had angered the engineers so much when there is no fuel even to manage CEB’s day-to-day maintenance work in most areas.

It is also learnt that some CEB engineers who had been allocated petrol vehicles had quickly switched to diesel because of the ready availability of the fuel from the Kelanitissa storage facility.

Its employees complain that even the engineers attached to project work in the Project Division continue to clock the same mileage as before, although the project work has come to a standstill because of the foreign exchange shortage and the resulting shortage of essential materials like steel, cement as well as CEB’s inability to open LCs for essential imports of new equipment.

Conditions for taking forward Sri Lanka’s efforts at exploiting indications of the presence of petroleum and natural gas in the Mannar basin have improved significantly in the last two years according to well informed sources in the international oil industry.

These sources said that when Cairn India drilled three completed exploratory wells between 2011 and 2013, two of the wells, Barracuda and Dorado was believed to contain gas estimated to be 1.8TCF and 300 BCF respectively.

“While they were not commercially viable when oil and gas prices collapsed in 2014, there is a strong possibility they will be at today’s prices. There are technologies that have reduced capital expenditure such as gas-to-wire power generation that help make the economic case for production of these gas finds,” these sources said.

“Cairn India has invested nearly $200 million in Sri Lanka, but it would require an investment of over $1 billion to build production infrastructure. Therefore, it is vital to urgently attract as many investors as possible for exploration and production to maximize benefits to Sri Lanka – especially in light of the global energy crisis and the concomitant energy price increases which has enhanced investor appetite.”

Other sources placed the Cairn investment at $ 250 m. saying it will now cost around $500 m to put in place a subsea completion to produce the smaller prospect. While one must drill to ascertain the actual existence and quantity of resources, seismic studies estimate 9 TCF of gas and several billion barrels of oil in the Mannar Basin, industry sources said.

These volumes could fulfill several decades of the country’s energy needs while potentially saving $6-7 billion p.a. in expenditure on energy. It also opens opportunities for Sri Lanka to earn revenue through Production Sharing Agreements with investors who take 100% of the risk. Mr. Saliya Wickramasuriya, Chairman of the Petroleum Development Authority of Sri Lanka confirmed that the picture had improved since Cairn drilled its first wells and possibilities of the Mannar basin are now on the radar screens of international oil majors.

“There have been external market changes (including price rises) and technology too had become cheaper. Additionally there have been internal improvements to the operating environment and legal framework. We’ve made it more investor friendly,” he said.

Other sources said what is needed now is to prudently fast track the long delayed Mannar Basin M2 block (exploration and production) tender and the commencement of exploration work by the selected bidder for the M1 and C1 July 2019 tender.There is also a need for conducting a marketing campaign to attract further investment while oil and gas prices are at historically high levels, they said.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe is to deliver his maiden Policy Statement in Parliament at 11 am on Wednesday (03), Parliament sources said.The President is scheduled to commence the Third Session of the Ninth Parliament at 10 am with his Presidential Policy Statement (previously Throne Speech).

The MPs have been requested to arrive at the parliamentary complex at 10 am the latest.The MPs, if accompanied by their spouses, will alight from their vehicles at the Staff Entrance of the parliamentary building, while all other MPs are requested to drive up to the Members’ Entrance.To facilitate orderly arrival, the MPs are requested that the car label provided be pasted on the inside top left-hand corner of the windscreen of their vehicles. On arrival at Parliament, Members’ vehicles would be directed by the Police to the appropriate car park.Thereafter the MPs are requested to enter the lobbies of Parliament and to remain there until the Quorum Bells are rung.

President Wickremesinghe is scheduled to arrive at the main steps of the Parliament building at 10.20 a.m. and he would be received by Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena and the Secretary-General of Parliament.The President will be escorted by them into the building. Thereafter, the Speaker and the Secretary-General of Parliament will escort the President to his Chambers.

At 10.25 a.m. the Quorum Bell will be rung for five minutes and all Members will take their seats in the Chamber of Parliament.

The President’s procession will leave for the Chamber of Parliament and will enter the Chamber at 10.30 am. On entering the Chamber the President’s arrival will be announced whereupon all Members will stand in their places until the President reaches the Chair and requests the Members to be seated.

Thereafter, the Proclamation proroguing the Parliament and Summoning the Meeting of Parliament will be read by the Secretary General of Parliament. Then, the President will address Parliament.

The gazette notification issued concluded the second session of the Ninth Parliament on Thursday (28) with effect from midnight.President Wickremesinghe prorogued Parliament in accordance with the powers vested in him with Article 70 (1) of the Constitution with effect from midnight Thursday (28) announcing that the third session of the Ninth Parliament will commence on Aug 3 at 10.30 am.

According to subsections (a) and (b) of Article 33 of the Constitution, after the end of one session of Parliament and a new session commences, the President has the opportunity to ceremonially declare open Parliament and preside over it to present the Government’s Policy Statement.

When the Parliament is prorogued, the questions and motions which were not considered up until then are abolished, and the MPs thus have to take it up in accordance with the standing orders. Furthermore, the Committees other than the Liaison Committee of Parliament, Committee on High Posts and Select Committees should be re constituted following the beginning of the new session.The second session of the Ninth Parliament continued from January 18, 2022 to July 28, 2022 under which the Parliament met for 48 days.

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