ENR The plant is sited in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, a key region for India's fishing industry. Commissioning of the 1,000-MW first reactor of the Kudankulam nuclear powerplant in India has ground to a halt due to protests by the local population. Originally scheduled for December, commissioning and start up of the estimated $3-billion plant in the southern state of Tamil Nadu was moved to March 2012 because protestor blockades have prevented engineers from gaining entry into the plant.Stricken with delays since it was first conceived in November 2008, the plant has been the target of safety concerns

Map by ENR The 1,483-kilometer industrial corridor from Delhi to Mumbai would contain nine megazones for industry, spread out along a future high-speed freight rail. Related Links: The Ten Most Noteworthy Rail Projects: Overview and Related Stories  Project: Delhi-Mumbai Industrial CorridorCost: $90 BillionThe Indian Cabinet last month approved the restructuring and financing for the future $90-billion Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, opening the way for forward for the ambitious megaproject planned along a future 1,483-kilometer high-speed-rail freight corridor. India’s rail ministry expects to invite bids this year for $2.2 billion worth of civil engineering contracts for the rail corridor’s first phase. The

chemicals-technology.com Island location near Singapore is close to Asian customers and has a deepwater port. chemicals-technology.com Facility will be sited on Jurong Island, already a major petrochemical complex in Singapore. On a 124-acre island site off the coast of Singpore, work has restarted on a $2.4-billion facility complex that could become one of the world's largest plants for producing aromatics, hydrocarbon products derived from crude oil.Originally set for completion this year, the Jurong Aromatics Complex (JAC) on Jurong Island has experienced setbacks caused by financial issues in the marketplace and among its investors, according to a published report. Singapore-based developer

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia The government-owned Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust plans to increase its draft from the current 12 meters to about 14.5 m in the first phase of its port expansion. India expects a $60-billion investment in its ports by 2020 to ease infrastructure bottlenecks. This expenditure would be part of the planned $1-trillion revamp of India’s choked transport and power networks.“The focus will be on awarding projects under the public-private-partnership mode, with [a] chunk of investments coming from the private sector,” B.K. Chaturvedi, a member of the Planning Commission, told a local newspaper. Currently, 74 projects have been

Photo courtesy of RAHI Issues surrounding compensation to landowners are delaying work on regional airports and other infrastructure. Land acquisition issues appear to be a growing factor in the delay of millions of dollars of infrastructure and industrial projects in India. Officials are pushing new legislation to boost compensation to landowners, but concerns over cost impacts may keep the provisions bottled up in the country's parliament.A recent study by the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation says the proportion of federal projects running behind schedule increased to over 53% in December 2010 from 34% in March 2007. Further, while environmental

Six years after South Korean steelmaker Pohang Iron and Steel Co. signed a memorandum of understanding with the Orissa government for India’s largest foreign direct-investment project, the $12 billion mega-venture remains a non-starter.The integrated steel project is mired in opposing political agendas, environmental conflicts and the country’s biggest issue: land acquisition by the government and ongoing protests by local residents who contend the land for the project was taken not for public use but for a private company.A memorandum of understanding on the 12-million-tons-per-annum integrated steel-plant-and-port project, signed in 2005, reportedly expired last year.Orissa steel and mines minister Raghunath Mohanty recently

Photo courtesy Bintan Resorts Work is now under way on Lagoi Bay, a resort encompassing over 1300 ha on Bintan Island. Photo courtesy Bintan Resorts The project faces a number of engineering challenges because it is being built on swamp land. Work is now under way on Lagoi Bay, a resort community encompassing over 1300 hectares on Bintan Island, one of Indonesia’s largest islands. Valued at approximately $812 million, the project is slated to be completed by 2014.Once a coconut plantation, the coastal development is less than an hour away by ferry from Singapore. The owners, Bintan Resorts, hope to

Construction is racing into the homestretch 35 kilometers outside of Delhi in preparation for India’s first Formula One grand prix, on Oct. 30. India’s first Formula One race track, known as the Buddh International Circuit, is expected to be homologated by August. JPSI German architect and racetrack designer Hermann Tilke designed the $400-million Buddh International Circuit. JPSI The course track features long, fast straightaways, complex slower sections with open, flowing corners and unusual gradients. Homologation is the approval process a race track must go through to be part of a league or series. The regulations and rules that must be

India's Gujarat state in western India may have only 5% of the country's population, but it has big ambitions for growth, aiming to become a leading center of industry, finance and economic activity over the next decade. Gujarat, which envisions billions in building and infrastructure projects under way by 2020, moved to propel the effort recently by becoming the first state in India to enact a legal framework for public-private partnerships. The moves prompted a Washington Post columnist's recent reference to Gujarat as the “China of India,” but the state's mammoth undertaking is not without challenge and setbacks. Gujarat has

India is developing an ambitious plan to boost the country’s fledgling airport infrastructure. Economic planners estimate the voracious appetite for commercial air travel will require an investment of about $30 billion by 2020. Now at 100 million passengers per year, traffic is expected to reach 180 million by 2015 and 300 million by 2020, according to Ministry of Civil Aviation estimates. More than 20 proposals are currently under consideration for greenfield airports, and some $3 billion is expected to be spent on the sector in the next three years. The to-do list includes the newly approved Mumbai Airport, expected to