Lavasa and LIC Housing have no links

"Lavasa construction company has nothing to do with LIC Housing Finance -- we have not taken a single penny from them," HCC chairman and managing director Ajit Gulabchand said today.

He denied any wrongdoing or involvement with Lavasa construction in the housing finance scam, in which LIC Housing Finance's chief R R Nair and a few public sector bank officials have been arrested by the CBI on November 24.

Gulabchand said, however, that HCC was fully co-operating with the CBI in its investigations.

CBI has also arrested Rajesh Sharma, chief executive of Money Matters, a firm that the investigating agency said had either bribed or attempted to bribe the officials to get loans sanctioned for many companies, including Lavasa.

Lavasa is considered to be India's first planned hill city located between Mumbai and Pune. Recently, Lavasa Corporation obtained market regulator Sebi's permission to file draft red herring prospectus for its public issue of around Rs 2,000-crore.

Gulabchand said that using a company like Money Matters was a "well-accepted practice" in the industry. He said Money Matters secured around Rs 200-crore out of HCC's Rs 800-cr long-term debt.

Environment Ministry's notice shocks Lavasa Corp.

Pune-based Lavasa Corporation , a subsidiary of HCC , today expressed shock over the Environment Ministry .s showcause notice to it for allegedly carrying out construction activities without approval.

"Lavasa Corporation Ltd is shocked at the receipt of a 'stop work' notice from the Ministry of External Affairs on November 26," a spokesperson from the company said in a statement.

Lavasa, engaged in the building and management of a hill-city near Pune, also said it has already responded to issues raised by the Environment Ministry.

"In an earlier communication to the government of Maharashtra, issues raised by the MoEF had already been responded to," the spokesperson said.

The MoEF had on November 25 slapped a showcause notice on Lavasa, a unit of Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), for carrying out construction activities without its approval in 25,000 hectares.

The ministry has given 15 days to the company, asking as to why the unauthorised structures erected by it, without any environmental clearance, between March 2003 and September 2006 in Mulshi and Velhe Talukas in Pune should not be demolished in their entirety.

The constructions, it said, were in violation of the Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 2006.

Raheja, Vedanta requests for SEZ rule relaxation put on hold

The commerce ministry has put on hold a decision on requests from Vedanta Group and Raheja Developers for relaxation of SEZ rules relating to land contiguity.

Vedanta Group had requested that a railway track be allowed through non-processing areas of its SEZ so that coal could be transported to its group firm Sterlite Energy's power plant. Sterlite Energy has set up a 2400 MW power plant adjacent to Vedanta Aluminium's SEZ.

Sources said a decision has been put on hold after representatives of the Revenue Department , who were present in the last Board of Approval (BoA) meeting on November 18, raised concerns of possibility of tax evasion.

While the Vedanata Aluminium SEZ needs to meet its energy requirements from the Sterlite power plant, the latter requires 17 lakh tonne coal annually. The movement of coal from mines to the power plant can be routed through a rail link connecting non-processing areas of the aluminium SEZ.

However, the contiguity rules do not allow for the construction of a rail passage.

Likewise, the Board of Approval (BoA) in the Commerce Ministry has also put on hold a decision on a request from Raheja Haryana SEZ Developers Pvt Ltd for relaxation of contiguity norms to enable it build an underpass.

Delhi Metro Debars Gammon For Zamrudpur Mishap...

Delhi Metro has debarred Gammon India , the construction company which is responsible for the Zamrudpur mishap that killed seven people, from participating in its projects for the next two years after finding its reply to the show-cause notice unsatisfactory.

The contractor has also been imposed a fine of Rs 5 crore by the Delhi Metro in an order issued on October 20.Gammon was issued a show-cause notice by Delhi Metro last year after it found that "design deficiency" was responsible for collapse of an under-construction bridge in the wee hours of July 12, 2009 at Zamrudpur in south Delhi.

The construction was part of the Central Secretariat-Badarpur corridor, which was partly opened to the public last month.In the notice issued to Gammon last July, Delhi Metro had asked the contracting company to explain why it should not be blacklisted for two years in the wake of the incident.

"The reply to the notice was found unsatisfactory, so the decision to debar the company was taken," a DMRC spokesman said.A four-member panel that went into the mishap fixed responsibility on Gammon for the accident and recommended the reconstruction or modification of four pier caps near the site.

In a 11-page report, the panel headed by IIT Professor A K Nagpal said there was a departure at site from the requirements of the design in the application of grout to the interface between the end plates of the steel strut and the face of the pier/pier cap to which the plates are attached.

"The drawings followed on site for construction of Pier 67 were advance copies and not authenticated by DMRC's design section. On enquiry, it was found that on occasions work commences without 'Good for Construction' signed drawings to avoid delayed construction," the report had said.