Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Mahabahu-Brahmaputra', lay the foundation stone of Dhubri Phulbari Bridge + Majuli Bridge - location based mcqs)
What's the NEWS

• Prime Minister will launch the ‘Mahabahu-Brahmaputra', lay the foundation stone of Dhubri Phulbari Bridge and perform Bhumi Pujan for construction of Majuli Bridge Assam on 18th February 2021

• The launch of Mahabahu-Brahmaputra will be marked by the inauguration of the Ro-Pax vessel operations between Neamati-Majuli Island, North Guwahati-South Guwahati and Dhubri-Hatsingimari; Shilanyas of Inland Water Transport (IWT) Terminal at Jogighopa and various tourist jetties on River Brahmaputra and launch of digital solutions for Ease-of-Doing-Business.
• The program is aimed at providing seamless connectivity to the Eastern parts of India and includes various development activities for the people living around River Brahmaputra and River Barak.
• The Ro-Pax services will help in reducing the travel time by providing connectivity between banks and thus reducing the distance to be travelled by road.
• The Ro-Pax operation between Neamati and Majuli will reduce the total distance of 420 Km currently being travelled by vehicles to only 12 Km, resulting in a substantial impact on the logistics of small-scale industries of the region.
• Two indigenously procured Ro-Pax vessels, namely, M.V. Rani Gaidinliu and M.V. Sachin Dev Burman, shall become operational.
• A permanent Inland Water Transport Terminal will also be built at Jogighopa under the program, which will connect with the Multi-Modal Logistics Park also coming up at Jogighopa.
• This Terminal will help in reducing the traffic on the Siliguri Corridor towards Kolkata and Haldia.
• It will also facilitate the uninterrupted movement of cargo even during flood season to various North-Eastern States like Meghalaya and Tripura and to Bhutan and Bangladesh as well.

• The Car-D (Cargo Data) portal will collate cargo and cruise data on a real time basis.
• PANI (Portal for Asset and Navigation Information) will act as a one-stop solution for providing information about river navigation and infrastructure.

• Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone for the four lane bridge over the Brahmaputra between Dhubri (on North Bank) and Phulbari (on South Bank).
• The proposed Bridge will be located on NH-127B, originating from Srirampur on NH-27 (East-West Corridor), and terminating at Nongstoin on NH-106 in the State of Meghalaya.
• It will connect Dhubri in Assam to Phulbari, Tura, Rongram and Rongjeng in Meghalaya.
• The bridge, to be built with a total cost of approx 4997 cr, will meet the long-standing demand of the people from Assam and Meghalaya who were depending on ferry services to travel between the two banks of the river.
• It will reduce the distance of 205 Km to be travelled by Road to 19 Km, which is the total length of the bridge.

• Prime Minister will perform Bhumi Pujan for the two-lane Bridge on the Brahmaputra between Majuli (North Bank) and Jorhat (South Bank).
• The bridge will be located on NH-715K and will connect Neematighat (on Jorhat side) and Kamalabari (on Majuli side).
• The Construction of the bridge has been a long demand of the people of Majuli who for generations have been dependent on the ferry services to connect with the mainland of Assam.

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Shri Ram Chandra Mission.
What's the News

• The Prime Minister addressed the event organized to commemorate 75 years of Shri Ram Chandra Mission.
• Shri Ram Chandra Mission (SRCM)
• It is a non-profit organization and a spiritual movement originating in India, which teaches the practice of "Sahaj Marg" or "Heartfulness Meditation".
• It was registered in 1945 by Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
• It has its current headquarters at Kanha Shanti Vanam, Kanha village, Ranga Reddy District near Hyderabad, Telangana.
• Shri Ram Chandra Mission teaches the "heart based" Raj Yoga meditation system known as Heartfulness Meditation.
• Shri Ram Chandra Mission was registered in India in the year 1945 by Shri Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur, U.P. India, affectionately known as Babuji (1899-1983).
• The organization was named after the Adi Guru of the system Shri Ram Chandraji of Fatehgarh, U.P. India (aka "Lalaji").
• The organization was also registered as SRCM USA in California in 1997.
• Shri Ram Chandra Mission is now present in over 150 countries on all continents

Defence
E-Chhawani portal & mobile app launched

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about E-Chhawani portal and mobile app)
What's the NEWS

• Raksha Mantri launched E-Chhawani portal and mobile app

Know! about the Portal

• The portal (https://echhawani.gov.in/) has been created to provide online civic services to over 20 lakh residents of 62 Cantonment Boards across the country
• Through the portal, the residents of cantonment areas will be able to avail basic services like renewal of leases, application for birth & death certificates, water & sewerage connections, trade licences, mobile toilet locators and payment of different types of taxes and fees, with just a click of a button.
• The portal, jointly developed by eGov Foundation, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Directorate General Defence Estates (DGDE) and National Informatics Centre (NIC), provides a platform to the residents to avail these services from the comfort of their home.

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Know! the benefits of the portal

• The E-Chhawani portal as an innovative effort to transform the functioning of Cantonment Boards, in line with the vision of ‘New India'.
• The portal will ensure effectiveness and transparency of the services distribution system of the Cantonment Boards and provide time-bound solutions to the residents.
• The process of availing the services has been simplified for the benefit of the residents of Cantonment areas.
• More services like filing of property and building tax, collection of rent and booking of community centres will soon be added to the Aadhaar-enabled portal.

Infrastructure Development
Online enrolment module for TECHNOGRAHIS launched

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about TECHNOGRAHIS + about Light House Projects)
What's the NEWS

• An Enrolment Module for TECHNOGRAHIS, has been launched

TECHNOGRAHIS

• TECHNOGRAHIS are students from IITs, NITs, engineering, planning and architecture colleges, faculty members, academicians, and stakeholders.
• Interested candidates can register themselves to visit these Live Laboratories at six LHP sites for learning, consultation, generation of ideas and solutions, experimentation, innovation, and technical awareness.
• This will help them in getting a first-hand account of the technologies being used and in turn, they can adapt and adopt them as per their requirements in the construction sector for a ‘Make in India' approach
• Till the completion of the LHPs within a period of 12 months, the ‘Technograhis' will get regular updates from the sites for information dissemination.

LHP E-Newsletter

• The LHP E-Newsletter also launched which captures the progress of the projects at each location.
• This will be the first volume of the E-Newsletter.
• Twelve such E-Newsletters will be released every month to inform the students, faculty, stakeholders and public about the development works through write-ups and photographs.
• It will also promote a healthy competition among the six states regarding the progress of each state.
• The six State-specific LHP booklets are for structured information about each site.

State-specific LHP booklets

• They give an idea about the technical specifications, an insight into each technology and other details.
• These booklets will be one-stop guide for technocrats for information exchange.

Light House Projects (LHPs) as Live Laboratories

• The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is promoting six Light House Projects (LHPs) as Live Laboratories for transfer of technology to the field.
• The primary goal is to encourage large scale participation of people tocreate technical awareness for on-site learning.
• The foundation stone of LHPs was laid by the Prime Minister on January 1, 2021, at Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Rajkot (Gujarat), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Agartala (Tripura) and Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh).
• LHPs are being built as part of the Global Housing Technology Challenge-India (GHTC- India) initiative under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U).
• The LHPs are model housing projects. About 1,000 houses at each location are being built with allied infrastructure facilities.
• This technology revolution is cost-effective, environment-friendly, disaster-resilient and promotes speedier construction.
• The initiative will prove to be a major push towards technical transformation in India.

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