Your long road trips to get comfortable

Born to industrialist Vittal Mallya and Lalitha Mallya

Becomes UB Group chairman at 28 after his father dies

Britain’s Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) buys 37.5% stake in United Breweries Ltd (UBL) Launches Kingfisher Airlines Pays $116 mn for Royal Challengers Bangalore IPL team Buys stake in Formula One team Spyker, now Force India

Buys low-cost carrier Air Deccan, adding to the group’s debt books

KFA shuts down its budget airline, weighed down by more than Rs7,000 crore in debt

KFA staff strike work; tax dept freezes KFA’S accounts due to long overdues; airline grounded Diageo announce deal to buy majority stake in United Spirits Limited (USL)

Banks declare KFA as a nonperforming asset. SBI, UBI and PNB declare Mallya as willful defaulter Diageo buys controlling 55% stake in USL for $3 billion (more than Rs11,000 crore) from UB Group

USL exits United Breweries by selling its entire 3.21% stake in the company to Heineken International BV for Rs872 crore

Mallya inks $75-mn (around Rs500-cr) sweetheart deal for exiting USL, steps down as chairman, made founder emeritus

Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) bars Mallya from withdrawing $75mn till disposal of SBI plea. ED registers a money laundering case against him. NEW DELHI: Planning an inter-city road trip but anxious about the absence of basic facilities along the road? Driving long distance on India’s national highways may no longer be a taxing affair with the government planning to provide amenities such as washrooms, drinking water and multi-utility shops every 25 kilometres.

A larger complex of services -rest areas for drivers, washrooms, bathing areas, restaurants, big multi-utility shops and adequate parking facilities – will be built every 50 km. The road transport ministry has unveiled a draft policy to standardise highway wayside amenities that are scarce and unevenly distributed, unlike other countries that have a uniform standard of facilities.

“In some highway stretches you have good restaurants and washrooms but in many stretches you have skeletal facilities. In some other, especially highways passing through remote areas, wayside amenities are non-existent. So we decided to come out with a policy that has set uniform standard,” said an official.