TRANSPORT
Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan ready to conclude agreement on road transport
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 23 By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend: Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan confirmed their readiness to conclude an intergovernmental agreement on road transport, the press service of the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said on May 23.
The agreement was reached in Baku on May 22-23 during regular Uzbek-Azerbaijani consultations on inventory and improvement of the legal framework of bilateral relations, at which the delegation of the Foreign Ministry of Uzbekistan took part. The Azerbaijani side was represented at the consultations by a delegation led by Deputy Head of the International Law and Treaties Department of the Foreign Ministry Rizvan Nabiyev. During the talks, the sides exchanged views on draft documents under consideration and discussed the prospects for expanding the legal framework for cooperation.
The sides confirmed their readiness to conclude an intergovernmental agreement on road transport and agreed to work on its signing in the framework of the forthcoming bilateral events, taking into account the importance of wider use of existing capacities and development of cooperation in the field of transport and transit, and creating favorable conditions for road transport operators of the two countries. — Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanov[1]
Only most interesting and important news[2]
References
- ^ @FDolukhanov (twitter.com)
- ^ Follow Trend on Telegram.
Only most interesting and important news
(en.trend.az)
End of the road for Sheppey haulage firm Tiger Transport and loss of 30 jobs
More than 30 drivers and office staff have lost their jobs after one of Sheppey’s fastest-growing transport companies has gone bust after chalking up debts of nearly GBP2 million. Tiger Transport bosses Terry and Karen Dodd said: “We’d like to apologise to all our staff, clients and suppliers and wish them well for the future. “We tried our best to keep the company afloat but the circumstances were outside our control.”
Terry Dodd of Tiger Transport
Managing director Mr Dodd, 69, a former London black cab driver, is to have a meeting with administrators HW Fisher and creditors this week to put the company in liquidation.
He launched the firm in July 2013 with one truck but was soon leasing more than 40 multi-car transporters to deliver imported vehicles from Sheerness Docks to dealerships all over the country. Clients included Gefco, BMW and Jaguar. MP Gordon Henderson was at the official opening of the firm.
At the heigh of its success the company sponsored Sheppey United’s football ground at Holm Park, Halfway.
One of Tiger Transport’s car carriers Sheppey United’s Tiger Stadium
But by January 2017 the directors had been forced to arrange new finance on condition of slashing costs by GBP100,000 a month. Mr Dodd, a co-founder of Minster Golden Gloves Boxing Club, said: “We made a few people redundant and reduced our lorry fleet. But in January this year our new accountants advised us that the company was technically insolvent.”
On April 10, the Dodds were forced to cease trading and locked the gates to their compound off Brielle Way at West Minster. Calls to phone lines went straight to voicemail. Tiger Transport’s website says it is one of the UK’s “fastest growing car transporters” and boasts more than 12,000 “extremely satisfied” customers.
Shut gates at Tiger Group’s West Minster depot
But Mr Dodd, who lives in Cliff Drive, Warden, with Karen, 57, the company’s finance director, said: “We just could not compete with the big boys.
“We had been having cash flow problems for 18 months but had a plan and believed we could trade our way out of the situation. “Then we had snow in March and a 20% drop in new car sales which nobody expected. And our fuel bills kept coming in.
We just needed a few more weeks.”
He said all drivers and staff were paid until the end of March.
NGT Directs Ministry of Road Transport and Highways File Statement on Status of Chardham Project
The National Green Tribunal has directed the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to file a detailed statement on the status of the Chardham highway project which aims to provide all-weather connectivity to four holy towns of Uttarakhand.
A bench headed by Acting Chairperson Justice Jawad Rahim asked the ministry to file an affidavit by May 28 giving details of the ongoing work and inform it about the areas where the work has not commenced yet. The project aims to connect Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri in Uttarakhand.
The green panel also directed the ministry to clarify its stand on the issue of obtaining environment clearance under the Environmental Impact Assessment notification along with other approvals. During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General A N S Nadkarni said the Chardham highway project was of national importance having regard to the fact that these are border areas.Also Read: 2018 Hyundai Creta Facelift Vs Jeep Compass – Specs, Price, Features and Which One is a Better SUV?[1]“Expansion of roads is required in larger national interest and there cannot be any compromise on this.
The project also involves greater public interest of facilitating the Chardham yatra,” the ASG said.
The submission was opposed by advocate Sanjay Parikh, representing the petitioners Citizens of Green Doon, saying environment clearance was must for the project and the ongoing work was “blatantly illegal”. He said the trees and mountains are also of national importance and it is the government’s duty to protect and preserve them. The Environment Ministry had earlier informed the NGT that it has received no proposal for environmental clearance of the project and hence the question of an environment impact assessment (EIA) study of such a project does not arise.
The ministry also said that under the 2006 EIA notification, only new national highways and expansion of highways over 100 kms need to get prior environmental clearance. The submission was made in response to a plea which said that the 900 km project in the hilly state was being carried out without any environment impact assessment. The petition also contended that the Centre has allegedly deliberately broken it into small stretches to do away the requirement for obtaining environment clearance.
The tribunal had earlier rapped the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for failing to submit a plan for disposal of muck from the highway project. The NGO had sought a stay on the Chardham project and directions to identify stretches of highways where landslides were likely to occur due to recent cutting of trees. It had alleged that the road widening work to connect Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri in Uttarakhand was being carried out in violation of environmental laws.
[embedded content]
“The Chardham project involves excavating and cutting away the base of the steep mountain slopes, cutting. of thousands of valuable trees and thus further destabilising the mountains and in fact turning the entire area into an active landslide zone. “It is pertinent to mention that not only will this block traffic and disrupt local life and tourist inflow greatly but in every monsoon, people will lose their lives when the landslides fall with even greater force,” the plea had said, adding that the area fell in a highly seismic zone with a history of earthquakes.
The plea had claimed that there was no information published for any Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) regarding this project and it was nowhere found in the public domain whether the EIA of this 900-km massive project, costing around Rs 12,000 crore, was conducted or not. “The applicants came to know about the execution of this project after massive cutting of trees on the different segments of this Chardham route (Rishikesh to Gangotri, Dharasu to Yamunotri, Rishikesh to Kedarnath and Badrinath) which recently started in the month of December, 2017,” the plea had said. Don’t Forget to Subscribe[2] to the ‘Tech And Auto Show’ YouTube Channel
It has been claimed in the petition that these Stage I and II forest clearance approvals were granted segment-wise and the number of trees in the forests to be cut were not declared for the entire project.
Instead, the project has been divided into numbers of segments for granting of approvals.
The tribunal had last year disposed a similar plea challenging the project after Border Roads Organisation (BRO) assured the NGT that they would carry out the project after due compliance with the laws, especially the Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone notification of December 18, 2012.
Also Watch
-
The Ones Who Never Left: Tales of Kashmiri Pandits Who Chose To Live in The Valley
Tuesday 22 May , 2018 Watch: Harley-Davidson University
Tuesday 22 May , 2018 Karbonn Titanium Frames S7 Review: A Decent Budget Deal
Monday 21 May , 2018 Nipah Virus: ‘Mystery’ Deaths in Kerala | What We Know About It
Monday 21 May , 2018 ‘Humsafar’ Singer Akhil Sachdeva Spills Magic With His Soulful Music
| Edited by: Ayushmann Chawla
References
- ^ Also Read: 2018 Hyundai Creta Facelift Vs Jeep Compass – Specs, Price, Features and Which One is a Better SUV? (www.news18.com)
- ^ Subscribe (www.youtube.com)