Surat is set to become the first city in India to have a Global Positioning System (GPS) for getting accurate information about physical assets especially underground assets.

Talks are undergoing with Rockefeller Foundation and Google Inc. to materialize the GPS mapping of the city on few months.

The city advisory committee discussed feasibility and scope of the GPS mapping of Surat city at the recently held meeting of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at Bangkok.

Surat, Oct 4 : Five people of a family were pulled out alive from the debris of an old three-story house that collapsed here on Saturday night.

All the Bohra family members were in the building when the house collapsed but were extracted out of it with minor injuries.

"We were having our dinner at that time. My entire family was there. We had realised that the building was going to collapse. Fortunately, we were sitting by the side of our bed. That''s why we were saved as the falling roof beams did not hit," said H K Bohra, a rescued man.

Surat, Sep 30  A total of 5.5 crore additional households will be provided cooking gas connections over the next five years covering almost two-thirds of the country, Union Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said here Wednesday.

He said this would increase the coverage of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) connections to 16.5 crore households in India from 11 crore at present.

Gujarat has recorded its 28th human swine flu-related death.

The deadly virus turned more deadly on Tuesday as two more persons died of deadly H1N1 virus in Gujarat's Surat city.

Informing the reporters, the health officials said that Budhiya Patel, 21, admitted to Mahavir Cardiac Hospital died on Tuesday.

Patel expired within an hour after he was admitted to the hospital. He was tested positive for H1N1. Patel was a resident of Jalalpore in Navsari.

The second victim, Rohit Vasawa, a resident of Sarthana Jakatnaka died at SMIMER Hospital on Tuesday.

Surat, Sep. 22 : Adventurous youngsters in Surat have taken the festive Dandiaya fever a step further by displaying the traditional dance on roller skates.

‘Dandiya on skates’ seems to have swept across the city, with 250 students performing during a recent show.

“Around 250 students have participated in the dandiya and garba dance programme on skates. They have been practicing it for two years. Now they have learnt how to perform dandiya on skates properly,” said Meena Modi, a skating teacher, whose brainchild is ‘Dandiya on skates’.

Nakoda Textile Industries Ltd., one of the leading players in the fully drawn yarn market, has informed that it has picked 18.5% stake in Surat Super Yarn Park.

Surat Super Yarn Park Ltd. (SSYPL) is a SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) floated by the Nakoda group, Shubhlaxmi Group and the Kothari Group under the 'Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks" brought out by the Ministry of Textiles.

Agra/Surat/Gaya, July 23 : The longest duration solar eclipse, which was seen in various parts of India on Wednesday, will happen only after 123 years.

However, the next solar eclipse - an annual one - will occur next year.

Enthusiasts including foreigners converged to parts of India to witness the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century.

In Agra, the view was spectacular where the sun was seen being eclipsed in the backdrop of Taj Mahal.

Tourists said they had come all the way to watch the sight.

Surat, June 15 : Police have detained some workers of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in the wake of today''s shutdown call given by the organisation, protesting the gangrape of 17- year-old girl here.

"Some VHP workers have been detained as precautionary measure," Joint Commissioner of Police (JCP) Shamsher Singh said.

However, the VHP activists alleged that police have arrested 50 of its members last night, including city unit secretary Utkarsh Patel and RSS leader Suresh Master.

Surat, Apr 27: Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Monday attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the 2002 post-Godhra communal riots in Gujarat, saying that only the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) could give the politics of division.

Surat, Apr 27: After a lull, diamond market in Surat was abuzz with activity following slight spurt in demand for high quality diamond.

Reportedly, over a hundred thousands of workers had lost their jobs following the recent recessionary trends.

With the current revival in a portion of the industry, recruitment of highly skilled workers has commenced.

Country's jewellery export witnessed modest growth of 0.45% to $21.11 billion in FY09 despite low demand from traditional markets of US and European countries. The sector performed well in first half of the fiscal. However, exports dipped by 18.9% during the second half under the impact of global slowdown and higher gold prices.

Here is a wake-up call for the Congress party in Gujarat.

A group of Youth Congress members burnt an effigy of AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi in City Light area of Surat on Sunday morning.

These members charged Rahul for selecting wrong people to oversee the recently held Youth Congress elections in Surat.

It is learnt that the activists, led by Rajesh Jain, who was a candidate for the elections from the Majura gate constituency and lost the polls after garnering just five votes shouted slogans against Rahul Gandhi.

In the Saurashtra-Kutch region, around 2,800 private doctors struck work on Monday to protest what they called as harassment from civic officials in the drive to guarantee safe disposal of bio-medical waste.

The officials have been raiding the doctors’ clinics after the death of 62 patients in the state in February-March because of the suspected use of contaminated syringes.

The Gujarat Khedut Samaj has decided to approach the Supreme Court after Gujarat High Court dismissed its plea opposing sale of a large tract of land used for cotton research for a commercial project.

The land in question is a vast tract of land, measuring around 65,000 sq mt, in the heart of the city near Ghoddod Road. The land, belonging to Navsari Agricultural University, is in the possession of Cotton Agricultural Research Centre, and has been used for research for decades.

Two people sustained injuries after a balcony measuring ninety feet of a shopping centre at City Light road here collapsed on Tuesday. More than 15 shops located at the shopping centre were damaged due to the incident.

According to information, the gallery-cum-balcony of first floor in Heera Panna shopping centre accidentally collapsed and the two injured were stuck in the debris.

Fire fighters rushed to the spot after learning about the incident and started removing debris from the spot. The two injured were identified as Chetan Umariya and Akshay Bhandrai. They were shifted to New Life Hospital.

Civic officials raid two godowns in Surat; 17 more quacks arrested

A day after civic official's recovered more than 100 kg of biomedical waste from Unn, they found more toxic waste from two godowns at Rander and Limbayat in the city on Tuesday. A formal complaint was filed against the owners. Besides this, 17 more quacks were nabbed from the city during search operations.

Land is required for second runway, says AAI chairman

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has sought an additional 864 hectare land from the state government for expansion of Surat airport. This was disclosed on Friday by VP Agrawal, the chairman of AAI, in Surat.

"We are committed to development of Surat airport as a world-class airport and have sought 864 hectare land from state government. This land will be required when a second runway is needed at the airport to cater to increased traffic and other future developments," Agrawal said.

Surat, Feb 27 : The new domestic terminal building was inaugurated at Surat today.

The new domestic terminal building has an area of 8474 square metre and is a glass and steel structure having modern passenger friendly facilities such as central heating system, central air conditioning, public address system, Flight Information Display System (FIDS), CCTV for surveillance, check in counters, and car parking.

Study will help in assessing the land use pattern for upcoming and existing housing projects

Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) will conduct a study to assess land margin and land-use pattern for new development plans after taking lessons from devastating floods that had hit Surat in August 2006. Based upon its suggestions, a proposal will be forwarded to the state government for action.

NAAC team to visit the varsity for accreditation on Thursday

On the eve of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) team's visit on Thursday, Saurashtra University has made all arrangements to see that it gets an 'A'.

"As far as the recommendations mentioned in the report of the peer team of NAAC after their visit in 2002 are concerned, we have taken care to see that all are fulfilled," says vice chancellor of Saurashtra University Kamlesh Joshipura.