Essar Oilfields Services India Limited (EOSIL) announced that it has been awarded a one-year, Rs 32-crore contract by ONGC to drill 30 wells at the latter's coal bed methane (CBM) block in Bokaro, Jharkhand. The Company will be deploying the MR#11 land rig for the job.

In a massive infrastructure boost to Gujarat, the Indian mass-transit operator Metro Link Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA) Company Limited has awarded an order of approximately Rs 579 crore to the consortium of Siemens Limited India and Siemens AG, Germany for electrification of the 39.2-kilometer Metro Express Link in Ahmedabad.

With huge infrastructure projects underway in Maharashtra, the state government is looking at restructuring its funding model so that bankers who are willing to fund projects will be covered by the government. This will form part of the agreement that they sign with the developers.

The government is working on creating domestic capacity for the equipments being imported in the country, said Sunil Barthwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Steel at an ASSOCHAM event held in New Delhi today.

Until recently, we used to talk about the cost of funds being too high and, as you are aware, some infrastructure projects have a long gestation period. There is a period of construction and then there are cost overruns and delays.

Policy actions to revive stalled projects, expedite approvals, introduce hybrid annuity and toll-operate-transfer (TOT) models in highways, and sustain rapid growth in renewable capacity augur well for the infrastructure financing landscape.

The Economic Intelligence Unit, based on a report on the 'Safe Cities Index 2017,' said the global economy is projected to grow at about 2.9 per cent in 2017 as against 2.3 per cent in 2016. The report also cited India to continue to grow at over 7 per cent over the next decade.

The air travel boom in India has thrown up a new set of challenges before the country's aviation sector. The airport infrastructure needs to be ramped up on priority for the growth momentum to be sustained in the long term.

Amber Dubey, Partner and India Head of Aerospace & Defence, KPMG feels that a tough relook is required at the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act, 2013, as it has made land acquisition for public infrastructure projects such as airports impossible.