The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee has extended his greetings and felicitations to the Government and people of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the eve of Nouroz (March 21, 2017).

The last large coal-fired power plant in Beijing has suspended its operations on March 18, meaning that the capital has become China’s first city to have all of its power plants fueled by clean energy.

“This is a historic moment, because we now bid farewell to all coal-fired power generation plants in Beijing,” said Cai Qi, the city’s mayor, as he visited the power plant owned by Huaneng Group.

“Replacing coal with clean energy not only deals with air pollution but is also a requirement of the company’s transformation,” said Cai, adding that the new power plant, which is under construction and will start operating soon, will use natural gas.

The shutdown of the plant will cut coal consumption by 1.76 million tons a year, and reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by 91 tons, oxynitride emissions by 285 tons and dust by 110 tons.

According to Beijing’s Clean Air Action Plan (2013-2017), the total coal consumption should be 13 million tons less by the end of this year, compared with 2012.

The plan also says that the city will build four gas thermal power centers and shut down the four large coal-fueled thermal power plants during that period. Three of the four gas thermal power centers have already been built and are in operation.

Government of India, in line with National Cyber Security Policy 2013, has created sectoral Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) to mitigate cyber security threats in power systems.

As the last pouring of concrete was finished on March 16, Beijing’s new airport terminal had its concrete structure capped, meaning the completion of the main structure of the terminal towards steel structure installation next.

The new airport project got starte a year ago. Now the main body of the five corridors connected to the main terminal has been completed, and a phoenix opening its wings has taken shape.

Right in front of the boarding gate for international flights is a sunken area, which will be a 2,000-square-meter garden showing Chinese culture and characteristics such as the silk, tea, china, landscape and classic garden. The five corridors all embrace such a display.

The main body of Beijing new airport terminal, based on cast-in-place reinforced concrete frame and space truss system structure, requires sophisticated technology and techniques. The next step will move on to space truss to be erected on the main structure with all-metal curtain wall, which will be completed by the end of this year to ensure that the new airport can be put into operation in 2019.

The main terminal building shaping radial corridors makes it convenient for passengers to walk from the center to the farthest boarding gate within 8 minutes.

The new airport is about 46 kilometers straight from Tiananmen Square. Beneath the terminal building will be a huge rail transit station, where high-speed rails, subways and intercity railways will cross underground.

Beijing municipal leaders last Friday mapped out a task list scheduled for eco-environment construction in 2017 on air pollution and water environment treatment, landscaping and removing illegal construction.

This year Beijing will cut coal consumption by 3 million tons to 7 million tons or less, including replacing coal with clean energy in 700 villages, in efforts to control annual average concentration of PM2.5 at about 60 micrograms/cubic meters.

In water environment governance in urban and rural areas, the city will eliminate black and odorous water citywide and cover the areas that have been built in the sub-center with the sewage pipe network and disposal system by the end of 2017.

In landscaping sector, 600 hectares of greenbelt will be paved and 15 leisure parks will be built. The city sub-center will also see 1,800 hectares of greenery to be added and 3,000 hectares to be upgraded.

With respect to traffic management, Beijing will phase in 100 projects to tackle this issue including building 90 more bypasses in six urban districts and increasing the rail transit length by 30 kilometers. 40 kilometers of bus lanes are also planned, joined by a program for 600 kilometers of bikeways. Public sharing bicycle services will be promoted with regulations.

According to Vice Mayor Sui Zhenjiang, 30 million square meters of illegal construction have been torn down over 2016. This year a total removal of 40 million square meters has been targeted to see to it that there would be no more emerging violations.