2 Ships burnt in Jamnagar

Salaya port in Jamnagar district is in news, Two vessels docked were gutted late on Monday.

The fire, which spread from a diesel tank of one of the vessels was stopped on Tuesday by about 100 fire-fighters.

Salaya port is located at 80 km from Jamnagar, the two ships were 350 tonnes Safina Al Salimi and 1,000 tonnes Ali Baug
both were owned by Salim Karim Sanghar of Salaya town.

First to reach were Eight fire-fighters, including three of Jamnagar Municipal Corporation (JMC), two from Essar, one each from Reliance, Khambhalia nagarpalika and IOC.

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Brip

CISF For Jamnagar Airport

More terrorist threats are faced for civil airports, hence the government has decided to extend CISF security cover to eight more airports in the country.

The include Srinagar, Leh, Gorakhpur, Bhavnagar, Dehra Dun, Jamnagar, Porbandhar and Shillong.

Though, Srinagar airport will still be under the control of a Joint Command of various central security forces said DG of CISF.

CISF personnel guard 54 airports including the newly-privatised ones at Delhi and Mumbai and the Greenfield airports in Hyderabad and Bangalore.

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Brip

Union budget - Nothing for Saurashtra

Hopes of Saurashtra businesses and industries died as Union budget was anounced, be it owner of small scale industries, ceramic factories, quartz units or metal industry.

There is Little relaxation in central excise duty for diesel engines and foundry units have dampened hopes for their revival (good for Rajkot), while the ceramic industry's dream to compete with China, with a cut in excise duty and VAT, has crashed.

PC's budget has badly hit brass parts industry in Jamnagar and diesel and foundry units in Rajkot, these both industry are dying.

Brass parts industry in jamnagar wanted relaxation in central excise duty upto Rs 8 crore from Rs 1 crore and relaxation in service tax upto Rs 10 lakh from current Rs 4 lakh.

According to Ramji Patel, president, Jamnagar Factory Association, the budget has disappointed the industry.Others like diesel manufacturing and foundry units in Rajkot also expected a Rs 3 crore relaxation in central excise, though FM has increased the slab for central excise duty upto Rs 1.5 crore.

Same goes with the diesel engine industry in Rajkot.

 
In Morbi ceramic industry, 12.5 per cent VAT has also been hindrance in competing with China. These industry demanded the VAT slab to be reduced by 4%. It was a mixed bag for the Morbi quartz industry.

 

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Brip

Gujarat State budget 2007-08

Gujarat State budget for 2007-08 has some good news for the common man., which means reduction in power bills, registration charges for immovable property and stamp-duty, and simplified motor vehicle tax.

Electricity duty is reduced to 20% from 30 % for following category.

vegetable shop owners,
Xerox machine operators,
STD/PCO operators, tailors,
hair-cutting saloons,
laundry owners,
panshop owners,
groceries,
cutlery provision stores,
stationery,
toys,
hosiery,
book stall,
small shops of milk products,
cyber cafes,
internet service providers,
cable operators,
petrol pumps,
farsan shops,
water kiosks,
pathology laboratories,
godowns,
private blood banks and hospitals,
cemeteries,
private libraries...

Government also offers the stamp duty relief of Rs 126 crore by bringing it down from 5.95 % to 4.9 %.

Proposed motor vehicle is to do away with the present fuel-based classification of vehicles, this tax now will be on the sale price of vehicles, this will reduce the present 67 tax rates to 18.

Government plans to provide domestic piped natural gas to towns like Vapi, Valsad, Navsari, Sarigam, Nadiad, Chandkheda, Motera, Rajkot, Morbi, Ahmedabad, Anand, Mehsana and Himmatnagar.

CNG stations will be set up at 20 places on the State highways by 2008 including Vapi, Valsad, Navsari, Bharuch, Nadiad, Kalol, Mehsana, Chandkheda, Bamanbor, Morbi, Rajkot, Amreli, Jamnagar and Bhuj.

 

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Brip

Jamnagar - Chevron chief in town

Chevron Corp Chairman and Chief Executive David J o'Reilly is in Jamnagar to review the progress of Reliance Petroleum Ltd's 580,000 barrels per day refinery, where it has a 5 per cent stake, Chevron has future rights to purchase additional shares to increase its equity ownership to 29 per cent.

 

RPL currently operates a 660,000 barrels per day refinery in Jamnagar.

RPL plans to invest 6B USD in the new refinery, which is expected to begin operations in December 08.

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Brip

Jamnagar - Chevron and Bhatinda - Mittal

On Tuesday Luxembourg-based Mittal agreed to a 0.7 B USD stake in  Guru Gobind Singh Refinery Ltd. refinery, which has a capacity of 180,000 barrels per day. Under the deal Mittal will own 49 percent , HPCL will own 49 percent, and the rest will be offered to financial institutions.

The deal with Mittal comes amid speculation that Chevron will expand its stake in privately owned RPL's proposed 27 million-ton, 580,000 barrels-per-day export refinery in Jamnagar, from 5 percent to 29 percent.

 

The $6 billion refinery is expected to begin operations in late 2008.

 

Chevron and Reliance may also partner on the KG Basin`s D6 deep-sea gas block,  which is believed to hold 35 trillion cubic feet of reserves.

 

HPCL and Mittal are exploring overseas refining and marketing opportunities and are looking to bid for foreign oil and gas assets.

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Brip

Dwarka - Medieval age city found

Underwater wing of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has recovered some of the remains of medieval age city, off the coast of this pilgrim town Dwarka in the Jamnagar District.

Recent discovery has once again raised hopes of the discovery of Lord Krishna's legendary city of Dwarka that is reported to have submerged.

The recent excavation revealed a structure of stone blocks with post holes to fit wood, team found coins, pottery, pieces of bangles and toys.

The discovery is an important landmark as it set to rest the doubts expressed by historians about the very existence of the legendary Dwarka city, the third excavation began on January 1, 2007.

Current excavation would definitely help them reach some conclusion.
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Brip

Mehul Kumar summoned by Court

Film maker Mehul Kumar has been summoned by a court over dishonoured cheques.

Jayantilal Gada, Director of Popular Entertainment Network (PEN) has filed 12 criminal complaints against Kumar over bounced cheques for Rs 14.19 million , Bandra court in has issued 12 summons to Mehul Kumar.

PEN has accused the producer and director of films like Mrityudaata, Krantiveer, Lahoo Ke Do Rang and Kohram, of diverting the money borrowed from the company to set up a multiplex in Jamnagar, Gujarat, it was later agreed that Kumar would "peacefully" give possession of Mehul Multiplex in Jamnagar, before April 15, 2006 or he would raise a loan and pay back 90 per cent of the loan amount before February 28, 2006.

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Brip

Parsvnath Developers to build a Jamnagar Township

Parsvnath Developers Ltd will develop townships, group housing, commercial complexes, IT Parks amongst others at Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar, Rajkot, Vadodra, Surat, Jamnagar and other districts in Gujarat, company signed a MoU with Government of Gujarat for developing various projects at an investment of Rs 1600 crore over a period of 2-3 years.
 

The MOU between Parsvnath Developers Ltd (PDL) and Government of Gujarat (GOG) was singed. Mr. Ashim Gandhi, Vice President, (Gujarat and Strategic Planning) of Parsvnath Developers Ltd signed the MOU with Mr. K. Srinivas, Managing Director of GUDC at Ahmedabad in the presence of Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The Government of Gujarat in the Vibrant Gujarat Urban Summit 2007 had invited investment from real estate developers to develop townships.

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Brip

Harappan site discovered at Jamnagar

A Harappan site has been discovered at Pithad village in Jodia taluka of Jamnagar district in Gujarat, experts says, could be as big as the Lothal site and had existed around 4,500 years back.

So far, the MSU excavation programme team has unearthed a huge wall, kilns to make clay utensils, and ovens to melt metal.
The study of configuration of the wall revealed the Harappan village was spread over about 11 hectares, site is located on a mound, locally known as Jedak Ni Tekri. There are over 300 Harappan civilsation sites in Saurashtra, which are called Sorath Harappan. 

Ajith Prasad, a reader with MSU says that its a huge wall which appears to have been constructed to protect the village. with 270 metre in length and 90 metre in width. The village was spread over the an area of 11 hectares.

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Brip