Hyderabad: The board members of Maytas Infra Ltd denied any involvement of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in getting the nod for Maytas to execute the Shimoga and Gulbarga airports and two projects of Power Grid Corporation Limited.
It clarified that it would go ahead with the execution of the airport projects irrespective of the consortium members’ stand on them.
Maytas Infra Ltd, the troubled infrastructure company promoted by the family of Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju, is making efforts to recover Rs 380 crore inter-corporate debt from Satyam Computer Services, according to Maytas Chairman K Ramalingam.
Disclosing this to the media after the company’s board meeting here today, he said Maytas Infra lent the amount to 14-15 other companies that were under its control and they, in turn, put it in Satyam.
There was documentary proof for all the money that went out of Maytas Infra, he said, clarifying that the companies to which the money was lent were not its subsidiaries.
However, Ramalingam did not disclose how many of these 14 companies belonged to Raju. It was yet to be ascertained if the money given by Maytas to the borrowing companies to be routed to Satyam was from the initial public offer (IPO) funds. The government-appointed board was working on options to recover the money, he said.
Along with Ramalingam, government appointed directors Anil Agarwal and Ved Jain were present at the Maytas Infra board meeting. The board did not make any recommendation for selling a stake in Maytas Infra to the corporate affairs ministry.
19/07/09 Business Standard
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Maytas Infra to go ahead airport projects
Radar blackout in Kolkata skies
Kolkata: It is no Bermuda Triangle, but increasing incidents of flights “disappearing” from the Air Traffic Control (ATC) radar at the NSC Bose airport in the city are raising serious safety concerns for passengers and crew.
A Kolkata-Bangalore JetLite aircraft with 51 persons on board disappeared from the radar around 7.15 p.m. after taking off at 6 p.m. yesterday. Last Sunday night, a Singapore Airlines flight from Milan had briefly disappeared from the Kolkata radar.
Frequent failure of instruments for monitoring flights was the reason for both incidents. The radar signature of the Jetlite aircraft disappeared while the plane was over the Bay of Bengal, apparently because of the sudden failure of a radar at Berhampur in Orissa.
The ATC officials however maintained contact with the pilot through Very High Frequency Radio Telephony, High Frequency Radio Telephony and other means till the flight landed in Bangalore.
A senior official of Airports Authority of India (National Airports Division) here said such incidents were a matter of concern. The Automatic Dependence System (ADS) at Kolkata was also inoperative from 5-12 July.
18/07/09 Sasi Mukherjee/The Statesman
Air India revival plan coming up
New Delhi: A comprehensive restructuring plan to retrieve Air India from the current financial mess is expected to be submitted to the Government this week. By July 25th,the airline's management is scheduled to put before the Committee of Secretaries (headed by Cabinet Secretary K Chandrashekhar) a business plan to turn around the national carrier.
This plan would mention specific steps AI would take over the next 24 months to cut costs and boost revenues, in a bid to elicit Government support in the form of equity. According to reports, AI is already eyeing additional revenue generation to the tune of Rs 1800 crore over the next six months but this could not be confirmed.
The restructuring plan is expected to address several complex issues, including staff strength and performance linked incentives (PLIs), hiving off Strategic Business Units (SBUs) into separate profit centres, tweaking the mega aircraft shopping order and shutting down unprofitable routes and even conversion of some planes already in AI's fleet to begin a domestic low fare service under the "Air India Express" brand name.
On workforce reduction there appears to be no immediate clarity. Senior ministry officials aver that about 5,000 of theworkforce would automatically retire in the next five years. Also, with the SBU plan being reactivated, many could technically be off the airline's books once the SBUs are hived off into separate subsidiaries.
19/07/09 Sindhu Bhattacharya/Daily News & Analysis
Jet Airways to fly to more Gulf cities
In a move to consolidate its network in the Middle East, Jet Airways has decided to introduce a daily direct service from Hyderabad to Dubai starting August 16.
The Indian carrier has started services to Saudi Arabia, with the introduction of its daily flight from Mumbai to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia's second largest city as well as a commercial hub.
The company is looking at rolling out services to Riyadh very soon.
The carrier is already functioning 17 frequencies to seven destinations in the Gulf, enatiling Kuwait, Bahrain, Muscat, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Jeddah and Dubai from several Indian cities.
18/07/09 Malini Ranade/TopNews.in
Two huge airport drug busts in 24 hours
A total of R107 million worth of drugs and chemicals to make drugs had been seized at OR Tambo Airport over the past 24 hours, the SA Revenue Service said on Saturday.
This followed a second drug bust at the airport on Saturday which saw chemicals used to make "designer drugs" to the value of R50 million being confiscated, said SARS spokesman Sibabalwenathi Mfabe.
"The dog unit officials confiscated two drums containing a mixture of ephedrine and cocaine in powder form weighing 20kg and one drum of ecstasy weighing 50kg, with estimated street value of R10 million and R40 million respectively."
He said the chemicals were transported into South Africa on flights from India.
No arrests have been made and the case has been handed over to the police. On Friday, at least R57 million worth of chemicals used in the manufacturing of narcotics was also seized at the airport.
"The chemicals were transported into South Africa on flights from India and Dubai to OR Tambo International Airport as cargo shipments," said SARS spokesman Adrian Lackay at the time.
"It is believed that the cargo was in transit and destined for Brazil and Columbia."
18/07/09 iOL, South Africa
