World Bank USD375 mln Loan for India's Waterway Project
In a major boost towards realising India's ambitious inland waterways project, the World Bank has approved a $375 million loan for capacity augmentation of National Waterway-1(River Ganga) under Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP). The government is developing NW-1 (River Ganga) under JMVP from Haldia to Varanasi (1390 Km) with the technical and financial assistance of the World Bank at an estimated cost of Rs 5369 crore (USD 829 mln). The project would enable commercial navigation of vessels with capacity of 1500-2,000 DWT. Under the project, there are going to be three multi-modal terminals--one each at Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh), Sahibganj (Jharkhand)…
Inland Waterway Information System Installed by Transas
Transas install and commission a River Information System on the Dnieper and Danube rivers. The River Information Service was designed specifically to ensure safe navigation on inland waterways, to provide electronic data transfer between water and shore through real time information exchange and harmonise information services to support traffic management in inland navigation. The system comprises the AIS Network which provides centralized control and diagnostics of AIS Base Stations T-214 installed along the Dnieper and Danube.
Priorities of new Dutch Presidency of EC
On 1 July the Netherlands replaced Ireland as head of the European Union (EU) for the next six months. The Netherlands will be the first country to assume the Presidency of the European Union since its enlargement to a total of 25 member states. What is more, the membership of both the European Parliament and the European Commission will change during the Dutch Presidency. The Dutch will probably also have to deal with the signing of the new European Constitution. These significant changes to both the people and the structure involved in running Europe are effectively "handicaps" which could potentially impede, or at least slow down, some of the legislative plans of the Dutch Presidency.
