Feature
Lucknow Metro to start its commercial run for public on March 8th
Lucknow: India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the commercial run of Lucknow Metro on the newly constructed 23km north-south corridor from CCS Airport to Munshipullia on March 8th through video conferencing rom Kanpur city.
Union home minister and Lucknow MP Rajnath Singh will show the green flag to the train in Lucknow. He will also take the first ride from the airport to Munshipulia. The train will complete the run in 18 minutes without stopping at any station,
Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC) managing director Kumar Keshav held a meeting with senior officials on Saturday to discuss key points regarding a lunch of the commercial run. Deployment of station controllers, customer assistants and security at all Metro stations was finalised.
The decoration of stations has already been done. Construction of Metro began on September 27, 2014. The work was completed in four-and-a-half years. Once operational, nearly 1 lakh people are expected to ride the Mtero daily. The corridor covers a major artery of the city.
Lucknow Metro work was conceptualized in September 2008 will finally see the light of the day on 8th March, 2019. Uttar Pradesh Government’s biggest project, Lucknow Metro will be flagged off through a video conferencing by PM Narendra Modi on March 8 while it will open for public from March 9.
I still remember the summer of 2015 when I, for the first time, entered the office of Lucknow Metro. A small digital screen caught my attention, the screen was showing the remaining number of days for the metro to start its commercial operation on a small priority stretch. Back then, the Akhilesh Yadav government had set a deadline to start the operations between Charbagh – Transport Nagar stretch. And guess what, Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC) was able to achieve that.
Commercial run for public of Lucknow Metro to start from March 8th:
However, this time around the Lucknow Metro’s entire North-South corridor is ready for operations two months before the April 2019 deadline and remains India’s one of the fastest developed Metro rail line.
In the Union Budget of 2014, a budget of Rs 100cr was allocated for both Lucknow and Ahmedabad metro. In 2017, Lucknow Metro’s priority stretch of about 8 kms was inaugurated while in 2019, the entire 22.8 km stretch of Lucknow metro will be inaugurated on March 8th. In sharp contrast to Lucknow Metro, Ahmedabad Metro recently started the trial run on its priority stretch of 6.5 kms while the entire route is expected to be ready by 2020.
Once touted to be the pet project of Mayawati-led-BSP Government, was finally brought to limelight by the Akhilesh Yadav government in 2013. The first concept paper of Lucknow Metro was submitted by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation in September 2008. The following month, in Oct’08 Lucknow Development Authority, cleared the project and an agreement was signed between LDA & DMRC. Later in 2009, a Bangalore-based company was roped in to study the traffic pattern of Lucknow and DMRC submitted a detailed route plan in 2010. While a year later, Lucknow Metro’s Detailed Project Report (DPR) was ready.
However, it was only in 2013 that the project was finally cleared by the Uttar Pradesh Government. The same year, a special purpose vehicle (SPV)- Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC) was formed by the Uttar Pradesh Govt to undertake the responsibility to construct and operate Lucknow Metro. In 2014, India’s Metro Man E. Sreedharan was appointed as the principal advisor of Lucknow Metro and a deadline to start the priority stretch by Feb 2017 was set. The construction work finally began in March 2014.
The rest is history now. The North-South Corridor or the Red Line of Lucknow Metro will connect Airport to Munshipulia. The highest fare is fixed at Rs 60 while the lowest is Rs 10. Lucknow airport, Alambagh bus station, Charbagh Railway Station, Vidhan Sabha, Hazratganj, Lucknow University, Badhshah Nagar railway station and Bhootnath will now be connected by Lucknow Metro.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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