Travel

Swiss BUNKER becomes first zero-star hotel

Posted by : sambala

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SEVELEN, Switzerland

Tourists in Switzerland can soon sleep in the world`s first "zero-star hotel," a former nuclear bunker several yards below the ground.

A group of 15 guests inaugurated the hotel, sleeping the night from Thursday to Friday in the former bunker embellished with artistic decoration and real hotel duvets.

But that was only a trial run, and regular operation of the hotel will require approval of an operating budget by the town of Sevelen.

The hostelry in the northeastern region of St. Gallen, which is part of the town`s project to convert the hardly used nuclear bunker, is aimed at guests with a modest income.

"Using the weapon of art, we have created a low-budget hotel, which has charm, takes into account guests` individual wishes and thus becomes quite something," said twin brothers Frank and Patrik Riklin, artists commissioned by local authorities to convert an ancient neighboring factory into a culture center and integrate the bunker.

Organizers said the price per night will be between $9 and $13.

The shared bathroom has been converted into a fountain with swimming flowers, and a live-cam is sending images from the outside onto a large screen in the windowless building.

Town Mayor Roman Zogg said the nuclear bunker was empty most of the time, except on rare occasions when the army used it for training courses.

"The maintenance costs loads of money," he said.

Zogg said he was convinced the hotel, which could host cultural events and ski and hiking camps, has good chances of success.

In case of emergency, the hotel could be converted back into a nuclear bunker within 24 hours in line with a Swiss law that says all civil defense buildings have to be ready for use within one day.

The hotel can start commercial operations if the town`s population approves the $73,600 project credit in a meeting scheduled for Nov. 11.

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India achieved Number one position

Posted by : zoombusiness

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India tops global list of fatal road mishaps .

"This is an alarming situation as we have been labelled as the country with maximum road deaths. China used to be ahead of us till two years ago, but not any longer. Of this, a majority of cases are of hit and run, which is an area of concern, said Brahm Dutt, secretary, Road Transport and Highways, Government of India.

The government has decided to constitute national and state level safety boards with experts on road design, vehicle safety and health as members. "The primary role of the boards, which will "come into effect very soon through an Act of Parliament, is to ensure safety norms are followed by all stakeholders road builders and maintenence agencies, vehicle manufacturers and road users said K H Muniyappa, Minister of state for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways.

The government is also going to initiate talks with auto manufacturers to introduce more sophisticated safety gadgetry, as is done abroad. "Devices like airbags, anti-braking system, improved suspensions and the like, which will improve the safety of vehicles will be introduced soon,added K K Kapila of International Road Federation (IRF). Dutt and Kapila were speaking at a conference on `Mobility and Safety in Road Transport organised in the Capital on Friday by IRF.

A study has revealed that there is a direct connection between increase in speed and the number of fatal accidents. "Pedestrians will survive if they are hit by a car travelling at a speed less than 30 kmph. But, death becomes almost certain if it exceeds 50 kmph. Every 10 per cent increase in speed in urban areas results in a 40% rise in cases of personal injury, 30% rise in number of fatal accidents and 20% rise in all accidents, said Prof S S Chakraborty, another expert. -et


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3rd Airport to Mumbai

Posted by : rvk41

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With the existing airports in Mumbai running at full passenger capacity, the Government is looking at building a third airport in Navi Mumbai.

"We are looking at building a new airport...Construction work should start by the end of next year or else Mumbai will suffer as the old airports are saturated," the Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel, said

For information,with regards
rvk41...

On Travel wheel

Posted by : zoombusiness

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I am on travelling but will soon resume here as soon I am in India.
Market is very nuch volatile and will remain choppy and crazy.
Invest but with caution.It has more negative approach hence control your money and cash for next fall.
Be ready to buy at next spree as market will come to another low and you will get buy chance.
I will be back by that time in India and for advisory.
Regards
Zoombusiness
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AIG bailout to impact Indian aviation

Posted by : Stockblogger

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The financial bailout of the world’s largest insurer the American Insurance Group (AIG) is expected to have its reverberations on the Indian civil aviation sector.

International Lease Financing Corporation (ILFC), AIG’s subsidiary, is currently among the world’s largest aircraft lessors. AIG’s customers include domestic aviation companies, Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines, Deccan Aviation and Spice Jet.

Almost the entire fleet of the private civil aviation sector is lease financed. Currently, there are about 370 aircraft in the country, of which about 35 per cent are new. Some of the leases, especially for new aircraft, were structured as cross-border sale and leasebacks, industry sources said. In this kind of structure, aviation companies purchase aircraft, sell it to a finance company and lease them back, paying fixed lease rentals at regular intervals. Such cross-border lessors are to taking advantage of double taxation treaties.

Sources said in most private sector aviation companies, deals were structured as leveraged leases. Leveraged leases imply that lease financiers, such as ILFC, raise debt for funding the assets. Each of these leases is structured through a separate special purpose vehicles (SPV), the sources said, with equity participation by both the counter parties involved. The structure allowed the SPV to raise funds on the basis of the rating of counter-party risks — which is the ability of the lessee to meet regular rental payment obligations during the life of the lease transaction.

Structure hiccups


There are, however, problems with such structures. Consulting firm KPMG’s aviation analyst and senior advisor Mr Mark Martin said, “Most of these lease transactions are structured with rental payments linked to the London Inter Bank Offered Rate (Libor).” The lease covenants therefore allowed for pass-through of any escalation in funding costs on to the lease rental.

In the initial stages of aircraft acquisition, the costs were available at spreads as low as 200 basis points over the six-month Libor. But the US government’s $85-billion bail-out package for AIG priced the spread over three-month Libor at 850 basis points, translating into an interest of about 11.5 per cent at current Libor levels. Accordingly, there are fears that if this interest is passed through to the aircraft lessees, the rentals are likely to steeply escalate from the current levels.

Impact on sector


However, Deccan Aviation Pvt Ltd Chairman, Capt G.R. Gopinath said, “We don’t see any impact now, since the lease contracts are already done deals. Some were fixed contract and some were floating linked to Libor.”



Mr Martin though preferred to remain cautious and said, “It is too premature to ascertain the impact on the aviation industry. We need to see how the situation pans out over the next few weeks.”

But there is intense speculation in the international financial markets that AIG was likely to put this subsidiary on sale. This was in view of the tight conditions for the Federal Reserve’s bailout package, since the AIG bailout loan was for 24 months.

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