Queensland approves dam
01 January 2000
The $150 million Nathan Dam in Queensland, Australia, has won state government approval, 70 years after it was first proposed.
Environmentalists said the decision was ''fatally flawed'', predicting disastrous impacts on the Fitzroy River system and Great Barrier Reef.
But the Taroom Shire Council and both sides of politics backed the project - which would create a dam with twice the capacity of Sydney Harbour - citing its potential to boost the central Queensland economy.
The project will be the state's fourth largest and first privately-owned dam on the Dawson River.
India to widen highway
Chennai: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has taken over the Salem-Cochin corridor national highway (NH) 47 for widening into four lanes as part of the National Highways Development Programme (NHDP).
Official sources said national highway 47 was not part of the ''Golden Quadrilateral'' of the NHDP but was being taken up simultaneously for development in view of the fact it provided a crucial link to Cochin Port. The approximate distance for the four laning, providing the port linkage to Cochin is expected to be about 360 km, and is expected to cost about Rs 1,500 crore ($348 million).
Japan construction sector grows
Tokyo: Japan's construction industry received some good news with a report from the Construction Ministry showing total orders received by the country's 50 leading domestic contractors increased in November from a year earlier - the first rise after seven months of declines.
The report, which compared orders from last November, shows the orders were up 2.4 per cent to 1.655 trillion yen ($16.12 billion). That compares to a fall of 18 per cent in October, 5.2 per cent in September and 6.9 per cent in August.
Russia to build new gas pipeline
Moscow: Russia's Gazprom plans to accelerate a project to build a new export pipeline to Europe that bypasses Ukraine, Gazprom chief executive Rem Vyakhirev said.
''It is the only adequate response to the continued unsanctioned diversion of gas on Ukrainian territory,'' Vyakhirev said, referring to the practice of taking gas from export pipelines without paying for it.
The new gas pipeline, which will pass through Belarus, will be 600 km in length. The pipeline route has already been selected and is now being inspected.
The new route incorporates the maximum amount of existing pipeline in Belarus, he said.
