Suresh Chanda, Principal Secretary Energy to Telangana Government, has directed the southern and northern power distribution companies  to finalise and sign the power purchase agreements with Hinduja National Power Corporation Ltd, which is at the advanced stage of commissioning the 1,040-MW thermal power project near Visakhapatnam. The erstwhile Andhra Pradesh State had earlier entered into an agreement. Now, with the state division, power generated from the project will be shared in the ratio of 53.89 and 44.11 between the two states. AP Transco has been called upon to sign up with the two discoms in accordance to the sharing formula between the two states. The Hinduja project is nearing completion after 15 years of its initial plans and is expected to ...

Hyderabad is set to become a megacity, with a population more than 1 Crore, over the next decade. Hyderabad is one of the 4 cities in India that will become megacities over the next decade. Hyderabad’s population more than doubled since 1990 but it ranked almost same as 38th most populous city now and then. The city’s population is estimated to increase to 1.277 crore by 2030, becoming the 28th most populous city in the world by 2030. In its 2014 revision of its report ‘World Urbanisation Prospects’, the United Nations’ department of Economic and Social Affairs stated that Hyderabad’s population would reach 89.44 lakh by 2015. China alone has 6 megacities and 10 large cities with populations between 5 and 10 million in 2014, and ...

With the Lok Sabha Friday passing the contentious Polavaram bill for the merger of over 200 villages across 7 mandal in Telangana with Andhra Pradesh, the government of Telangana is planning to challenge it in the Supreme Court Terming the central government’s move “undemocratic” and “unconstitutional”, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said he was consulting legal luminaries and constitutional experts. “The fight will continue. The modalities will be announced later,” said a statement from the chief minister’s office. He said passing the bill to convert an ordinance issued last month into a legislation was a clear cut violation of article 3 of the constitution as the consent of Telangana was not taken. It was unethical on the part of NDA government, to pass ordinance in this manner, ...

 Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd. (MCL), a subsidiary of Coal India, closed down mining operations at 3 mines in the Jagannath area in Angul district of Odisha following protests by villagers. At least 122 people in the Hensmul village in the area have refused to vacate, despite resettlement offers from the company. Closure of mining operations at Jagannath Area would mean snapping off fuel supplies to the power plants in Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. It will also hinder operations of the Bhubaneswari and Ananta open cast projects in Odisha. Quarters were given to 79 of the 122 villagers, and, the rest were assured of interim arrangements. However, the villagers refused to hand over their possessions over concerns of their livelihood. The halted ...

The TJAC and the communist parties have called for shutdown on Saturday to protest the passage of Polavaram bill in Lok Sabha merging 7 mandals of Telangana with AP displaying lakhs of tribals. The TJAC urged all sections of people to voluntarily take part in the strike to register their protest. The CPI, CPI(M), New Democracy and Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML) have also called for shutdown. Ruling TRS which has been fighting a legal battle over Polavaram expressed it’s support to the bandh. Telangana Congress too supported the protests. TJAC chairman M. Kodandaram told reporters that the central government’s move in passing the bill without consent of Telangana is against Article 3 and so is unconstitutional. The communist leaders reiterated ...