A British Deputy High Commissioner’s wife to do Dandi March

20 October 2010

Eighty years after the original Dandi March by Mahatma Gandhi as a symbolic gesture of defiance towards the British salt tax law, a British social activist has got inspired by it. Jill Beckingham, wife of British deputy high commissioner in Mumbai Mr. Peter is planning to walk next month to raise funds for the charity.

Jill Beckingham is associated with the social work in Mumbai. The money raised during Jill’s Dandi march will be used for the welfare of leprosy patients, tribals, hearing impaired as well as for a school next to a garbage dump in Mumbai.

Mahatma Gandhi had led the historic Dandi march at the age of 61. He walked 390 kilometres from Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad on March 12, 1930 and reached to the coastal town of Dandi in south Gujarat near Navsari after 14 days . Jill would begin her march on 18th November when the atmosphere in this region remains moderate cool and pleasant.

Jill has already walked a distance of 60 miles from London to Brighton for raising money. On the advise of some of the volunteers working in Vadodara she has decided to take up the cause of leprosy patients. Dandi was chosen on account of its historical importance.

Jill is a specialist in helping children with reading difficulties. She is also the Patron of the Philippine Community Fund, helping children on dump-sites, and also taught abused girls in Manila

Merinews

GMR Infra to Set up 25 MW solar power plant

Indian conglomerate GMR Infrastructure Ltd said it was entering the solar power area with a 25-mw photovoltaic plant to be set up in Gujarat. The Gujarat Government has approved the proposal, it said in a note to the stock exchanges.

Gujarat is the leader in wind power. Now, the GoG plans to develop 3,000 MW solar energy capacity in the next five years.

The GMR group is aggressively moving ahead in power sector. Currently it has three operational projects totalling 808 MW and 11 projects are in the pipeline totalling 8,448 MW, in thermal and hydel model.

The share ofGMR Infra ended down 2.25 percent at 56.35 rupees in a weak Mumbai market on the friday.

GMR to light up Singapore

Island Power, owned by Bangalore based GMR Group has revived its 800 MW power project in Singapore. A consortium of banks in Singapore would finance this S$1.3 bn (INR 4,433 Cr) project. Total debt amount is expected to be S$ 850 mn (INR 2,899 Cr).

The project has got delayed due to change in managements and the gas supply agreements. The project will get LNG from the new Singapore LNG Corp terminal. The gas supply agreement is likely to be confirmed with BG Group plc.

GMR group took 100% stake in Island power in May,2009.  It is the only private owned IPP in Singapore. This year Singaporean state owned company Temasek Holdings has acquired a stake in the GMR subsidiary developing Island Power, GMR Energy, with a US$ 200 mn (INR 890 Cr) equity injection. The composition has brought back the project on line.

EPC contracts were awarded to Siemens and Samsung in August,2010 to start construction in Q4 of 2010. The project is expected to have the COD around Dec 2013.