“Women of India -Shifting Gears”, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), ‘Net Zero’ Carbon Emission Mass Transportation Network
1. "Women of India -Shifting Gears" under Dekho Apna Desh campaign
- The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, under the Dekho Apna Desh webinar series, organised its 40th webinar titled “Women of India – Shifting Gears” outlining the thrills of women biking infused with tourism.
- The webinar session was held by two women bike enthusiasts of India Jai Bharathi who is an avid motorcyclist, travel enthusiast and Co-founder of MoWo (Moving Women), a social initiative encouraging women to travel in motorcycles and Candida Louis, a biker, blogger, story teller and Motorcycle tour guide.
- Ministry of Tourism, the hour-long session touched upon various aspects surrounding safety of women bikers of India, the exploration of the myriad landscape of India on motorcycle, responsible travelling and encouraging more women to bike across the country without inhibitions.
- While Jai Bharathi hails from the state of Telangana, is an architect by profession and now runs a non profit organisation called MoWo (Moving Women) which helps women learn how to ride two wheeler and also heads an all-women biker club called Bikerni of the Hyderabad.
- Candida Louis is a young motorcycle travel influencer with over millions of followers on YouTube and Instagram.
- Coming from the town of Hubli in Karnataka, she claims herself to be a story teller and a passionate motorcycle tour guide who helps tourists encounter much thrilling and extraordinary travel experiences around the country and abroad.
- For someone who has been conferred by the Govt of Telangana with “Vishishta Mahila Puraskaram” and the only woman bike traveller in the state, Jai Bharathi proudly shares her experience of travelling across the borders of the country and 7 foreign countries like the USA, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, etc covering thousands of miles and representing the country in past few years of her biking journey.
- Her fascination for visiting UNESCO sites has helped her finish the challenge of visiting all of the 38 UNESCO sites across India.
- This fascination has got her traveling in unexplored destinations and learns the uniqueness of Indian culture.
- Candida on the other hand had toured the entire country at a stretch in 2015 covering 32000 kilometres and 22 states in a span of 7 months.
- Her most recent trip was from India to Australia where she rode for about 8 months crossing 10 countries on the road.
- Her passion for motorcycle tour leading has made her lead tours in and out of the country with more than 15 countries and 40 trips ticked off her check list.
- During her introduction, Candida shares her love for local culture and cuisines as well as being active in volunteering and community service.
- Jai Bharathi expressed, how the historical and cultural heritage, the long coastal lines, the vast mountain ranges and hills, the country side, agriculture fields and India’s road network which is considered the second largest in the world can be experienced through these motor machines that not only add to the thrill and adventure but also empower women to get out of their homes and experience true freedom.
- North India is also blessed with some of the best monuments and historical sites that makes it an apt region for biking adventures for foreign and as well as national tourists.
- The eastern India, according to Candida, has one of the best views for a biker during his or her expedition due to the greenery of the region.
- The one that stands out the best is the northeast region which immensely depicts the actual picture of natural beauty with the seven sisters of the northeast consisting some of the most stunning landscapes including waterfalls and deep forests, cleanest villages, high mountain passes etc and the best way to experience these remote places, she said, is by motorcycling.
- South India being blessed with long coastal roads and pristine beaches makes for a perfect destination for bike riders and motorbike journeys.
- West India was a special ride where she landed up in Pushkar, Udaipur, Jaisalmer and many other unexplored places that opened up a whole new colourful world to her and places like the rat temple, bullet baba temple or biker temple and the likes were something she’d never heard of but discovered them during the journey.
- West India, according to her has the most picturesque views and provides the best backdrop for bikers on their biking journey.
- central India has it’s oft and mystical land with ancient temples, majestic forts, forests, jungles, wildlife and some of the most vibrant cities of India.
- However, This brought her into narrating one of her motor ride journey celebrating and promoting one of the major festivals celebrated in Telangana during Navratri called, Bathukamma.
- It’s a 9-day festival for and by women where the women folks gather flowers of different kinds available naturally in the surroundings and decorate it around a pit dug outside their homes.
- In 2018, in order to promote the Bathukamma festival Jai and a group of 9 women travelled across 9 districts in Telangana covering 1200kms on their bullets dressed up in ethnic attires and exploring their traditional handloom and culture.
- Bharathi said that it is essential for us to promote these cultures as much as we can through various platforms and means available to us.
- Dekho Apna Desh Webinar Series is an effort to showcase India’s rich diversity under Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat and it is continuously spreading spirit of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat through virtual platform.
2. National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to Rank Roads for Quality Service
- In its effort to improve the quality of roads, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has decided to undertake performance assessment and ranking of the highways in the country.
- The assessment audit and ranking of the NHs is aimed to take corrective recourse, wherever needed, to improve the quality and provide higher level of service to highway commuters.
- The assessment parameters are based on different international practices and studies for benchmarking highway performances in Indian context.
The criteria for the assessment have been broadly categorised in three main heads: Highway Efficiency (45%), Highway Safety (35%) and User Services (20%).
- On the basis of outcome of the assessment, the authority will undertake a comprehensive analysis and decide on the level of intervention required to enhance the overall service quality.
- Additionally, important parameters like operating speed, access control, time taken at toll plaza, road signages, road markings, accident rate, incident response time, crash barriers, illumination, availability of Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS), functionality of structures, provision for grade separated intersections, cleanliness, plantation, wayside amenities and customer satisfaction will also be considered while conducting the assessment.
- The score obtained by each Corridor in each of the parameter will provide a feedback and corrective recourse for higher standards of operation, better safety and user experience to improve existing highways.
- This will also help in identifying and filling gaps of design, standards, practices, guidelines and contract agreements for other NHAI projects.
- The ranking of the corridors will be dynamic and the concessionaire/ contractor/ operator will get the opportunity to improve upon their ranking by improving the services on that corridor.
- Apart from overall ranking of all the corridors, separate ranking for BOT, HAM and EPC projects will also be done.
- This process of ranking will bring out operational efficiency and ensure high quality maintenance of roads.
3. 'Net Zero' Carbon Emission Mass Transportation Network by 2030 by Indian Railways
- Railway is committed to utilize solar energy for meeting its traction power requirements and become a complete ‘Green mode of transportation’.
- The Ministry of Railways has decided to install solar power plants on its vacant unused lands on mega scale.
- The use of solar power will accelerate the Minister of Railways, Shri Piyush Goyal’s mission to achieve conversion of Indian Railways to ‘Net Zero’ Carbon Emission Railway.
- Indian Railways present demand would be fulfilled by the solar projects being deployed, making it the first transport organisation to be energy self-sufficient. This would help in making Indian Railways green as well as ‘Atma Nirbhar’.
- Indian Railways has acted as a pioneer in green energy procurement.
- It has started energy procurement from various solar projects like 3 MWp solar plant set up at MCF Raebareilly (UP).
- About 100 MWp rooftop solar systems have already been commissioned on various stations and buildings of Indian Railways.
- This is the first of its kind project in the world commissioned by Indian Railways in collaboration with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL).
- It involves adoption of innovative technology for converting Direct Current (DC) to single phase Alternating Current (AC) for feeding directly to Railway’s overhead traction system.
- The solar power plant has been established near the Bina Traction Sub Station (TSS). It can produce approximately 25 lakh units of energy annually and will save around INR 1.37 Crore for Railway every year.
- The project was undertaken by BHEL under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) scheme.
- The key challenge in this project was the conversion of DC power generated from solar panels to the single phase 25 KV AC power which is used by the Railways traction system.
- This required the development of high capacity inverters with single phase output which were not readily available in the market.
- The solar panels generate DC energy which will be converted into AC energy through these unique inverters and stepped up to 25 kV AC -1 ϕ through the transformer to directly feed power to the BINA TSS which will be used for running of electric trains.
- In addition to this, two pilot projects for the scheme of land based solar plants for meeting electric traction energy requirements of Indian Railways are under implementation.
- One of them is a 50 MWp solar power plant on vacant unused land at Bhilai (Chhattisgarh) which shall be connected with Central Transmission Utility (CTU) and is targeted to be commissioned before 31st March, 2021.
- The 2 MWp solar plant at Diwana (Haryana) which shall be connected to State Transmission utility (STU) is expected to be commissioned before 31st August, 2020.
- Indian Railways is also adopting an innovative concept of installation of solar projects along operational railway lines.
- This will help in preventing encroachment, enhancing the speed and safety of trains and reduction of infrastructure costs due to direct injection of solar power into the traction network.
- With these mega initiatives, Indian Railways is leading India’s fight against climate challenge and is taking significant steps towards meeting its ambitious goal of being a net zero carbon emissions organisation and meeting India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) targets.
