___________

Following is from a Business Standard article by Jayajit Das.

“We had submitted a Rs 1,200-crore connectivity plan for minor ports to the Government of India. In response, they have roped in a Gurgaon-based consultant- Louis Burger Consulting Pvt Ltd and they have already started the feasibility study. In 3-4 months, the consultant will be submitting its report to the Central government after which we can expect flow of funds”, a top official source told Business Standard.

It may be noted that there would be a major focus on road connectivity to major ports and airports in the country in the 12th Plan.

A Planning Commission Working Group on Central Roads Sector has demanded special package for this so that it is implemented on priority basis, separating it from overall National Highway planning.

While two-lane connectivity for 50 minor ports have been envisaged at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore, the cost of constructing roads to connect 24 airports has been estimated at Rs 1,800 crore. The proposal has been approved by the Steering Committee on Transport Sector for the 12th Plan held under the Chairmanship of Plan Panel Member BK Chaturvedi.

Earlier, the Orissa government which has identified 14 potential sites for the development of minor ports had requested the Government of India to formulate a policy to provide rail and road connectivity to these ports from the national network on the lines of major ports.

The Union ministry of shipping and highways is understood to offer 50 per cent funding for road and rail connectivity for these upcoming ports.

…

The state has witnessed grounding of investment of Rs 4,262.44 crore from non-major ports in the past 10 years.

The investments have come from four minor port developers- Dhamara Port Company Ltd (DPCL), Gopalpur Port Ltd (GPL), Creative Port Development Ltd and Navayug Engineering Ltd from 2002-03 up to the end of September last year.

Following is from a report by Bibhuti Barik in Telegraph.

The state government is planning to build a new road from Lingaraj Temple to Kotiteertheswar Temple at a cost of around Rs 2 crore, to ease traffic pressure in the area. The 410-metre two-lane road will come with a three-acre parking area.

The project, which is to be taken up jointly by the tourism department and the roads and building division of the public works department (PWD), will also help provide a clearer view of the 11th century Lingaraj temple as shops and roadside vendors in front of the shrine will be relocated along the new road.

… the dilapidated Lingaraj Market Complex … will be demolished to clear the area for the laying of the road which will run along the Devi Padahara pond, behind Ananta Vasudev Temple and the farm lands on the side of natural drainage channel No. 7 near Kotiteertheswar Lane. The private land near the temple, which is owned by businessmen and the Lingaraj Temple Trust, will also be acquired to speed up the road project.

… “The state tourism department has already given Rs 30 lakh to the PWD and the rest — Rs 1.69 crore — will be provided by them from their plan budget. All the displaced traders and vendors will be rehabilitated.”

… the two-lane road would have facilities such as footpath and accompanying drains. However, the parking lot would be built by the tourism department, as it is not included in the road project.

The road would later be extended up to Taleswar Mahadev to improve the communication between Kedar Gouri and Lingaraj Temple.

Tourism department sources added that Old Town would soon have a mega tourist circuit, for which the Centre has sanctioned Rs 8.14 crore. The proposed circuit envisages, among others things, renovation of two major roads, construction of a “parikrama” around Lingaraj Temple, soft lighting for eight protected monuments and two tourism interpretation centres.

While the tourism department is trying to revive Ekamreswar, the miniature temple of Lord Lingaraj near Lingaraj police station, a dedicated road corridor will be constructed to link Puri, Old Town and Khandagiri via Dhauli. An amphitheatre will also be built opposite Madhusudan Park at Pokhariput with a capacity to accommodate 3,000 people.

Following is from a PTI report in zeenews.

The Cabinet Committee of Infrastructure (CCI) on tuesday approved projects … four/two laning of Birmitrapur-Barkote section on NH 23 in Orissa under National Highways Development Project (NHDP) phase IV-A, an official release said.

"… The total estimated cost of the project (Orissa) is Rs 1,098.90 crore," the release said.

On land acquisition, resettlement, rehabilitation and pre-construction, … Rs 320.75 crore will be spent on  Orissa projects.

Both the projects will be built on design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis in BOT (Toll) mode of delivery.

… On the Orissa project, which is based in Sundargah and Deogarh districts, it said the concession period is 23 years including construction period of 30 months for 125.61 km scheme.

"The project will reduce the time and cost of travel for traffic, particularly heavy traffic, plying between Birmitrapur-Barkote. It will also increase the employment potential for the local labourers for the project activities," it said.

Following is an excerpt from a report in ibnlive.com.

Naveen demanded that five State Highways — Berhampur-Koraput, Madhapur-Rayagada, Phulnakhara-Konark, Kuakhia-Aradi-Bhadrak and Palasa-Khariar — be upgraded to NHs.

Following are excerpts from a report in Hindu.

The Orissa Chief Minister, Mr Naveen Patnaik, has sought 50 per cent share in “super normal profit” earned by private mine owners and said he would raise the issue of imposition of a mineral resource tax on iron ore during the National Development Council (NDC) meeting on Saturday.

“Mining companies are making super normal profits in Orissa. People of Orissa deserve 50 per cent of this…a quarter of our population is of tribals and we will put this profit to developing our areas,” Mr Patnaik said.

He said this was essential as most of the mining companies were operating on tribal land without doing justice to the people. Despite the State being the owner of the resources, the mine owners are benefiting beyond any measure of reasonable returns, he said.

“I have already written to the Prime Minister about it. I will be speaking about it in the NDC meeting. Rent-resource tax from the mining companies should be levied on Australia’s pattern,” he said.

In a July 30 letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Patnaik said, “The insatiable demand for iron ore in the export market has resulted in iron ore becoming highly profitable commodity, with returns from mining being far in excess of economically acceptable rates.”

The letter mentioned that the super-normal profits being made are evident from the audited operational profits of 80 per cent by miners, which is unheard of in other industries.

The Chief Minister had sought imposing a 50 per cent mineral resource tax, taking cue from Australia which has decided to levy higher taxes on iron ore from July 2012.

The various phases of NHDP and their meaning, as obtained from wikipedia,  is as follows:

Phase I: The Golden Quadrilateral (GQ; 5,846 km) connecting the four major cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

* In Odisha: Part of the GQ connecting Kolkata to Chennai.

Phase II: North-South and East-West corridors comprising national highways connecting four extreme points of the country. The North-South and East-West Corridor (NS-EW; 7,300 km) connecting Srinagar in the north to Kanyakumari in the south, including spur from Salem to Kanyakumari (Via Coimbatore and Kochi) and Silchar in the east to Porbandar in the west.

* In Odisha None

Phase III: The government recently approved NHDP-III to upgrade 12,109 km (7,524 mi)of national highways on a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis, which takes into account high-density traffic, connectivity of state capitals via NHDP Phase I and II, and connectivity to centres of economic importance. contracts have been awarded for a 2,075 km (1,289 mi).

* In Odisha (From http://www.nhai.org/nhdpphase3.asp.)

• Panikholi-Keonjhar- Rimoli, NH 215, 106kms
• Duburi – Talcher, NH 200, 98kms
• Bhubneshwar-Puri(Approved Length 59 Km) 203 67
• Chandikhole-Duburi 200 39
• Rimoli – Roxy – Rajamunda(Approved Length 163Km) 215 96
• Sambalpur-Baragarh-Chattisgarh/Orrisa Border 6 88 Balance for award

Phase IV: The government is considering widening 20,000 km (12,000 mi) of highway that were not part of Phase I, II, or III. Phase IV will convert existing single lane highways into two lanes with paved shoulders. The plan will soon be presented to the government for approval.

* In Odisha (From http://www.nhai.org/ppp.htm.)

• Birmitrapur-Barkote 23 Orissa 128 778.15 IV Aug’11
• Angul-Sambalpur 42 Orissa 153 1220.32 IV Aug’11
• Cuttak-Angul 42 Orissa 112 1123.69 IV Sep’11  [4 laning approved by finance ministry panel, Sept 2011]

Phase V: As road traffic increases over time, a number of four lane highways will need to be upgraded/expanded to six lanes. The current plan calls for upgrade of about 5,000 km (3,100 mi) of four-lane roads, although the government has not yet identified the stretches.

* In Odisha (From http://www.nhai.org/nhdpphase5.asp.)

• Six Laning of Chandikhol-Jagatpur-Bhubaneswar(Approved Length 61 Km) 5 67
• Dhankuni-Balasore (Orissa portion Balasore – Laxmannath) 2 , 6& 60 235.68
• Bhubneshwar-Ichchapuram 5 164.33
• Balasore –Chandikhol 5 138.14

Phase VI: The government is working on constructing expressways that would connect major commercial and industrial townships. It has already identified 400 km (250 mi) of Vadodara (earlier Baroda)-Mumbai section that would connect to the existing Vadodara (earlier Baroda)-Ahmedabad section. The World Bank is studying this project. The project will be funded on BOT basis. The 334 km (208 mi) Expressway between Chennai—Bangalore and 277 km (172 mi) Expressway between Kolkata—Dhanbad has been identified and feasibility study and DPR contract has been awarded by NHAI.

* In Odisha: None yet.

Phase VII: This phase calls for improvements to city road networks by adding ring roads to enable easier connectivity with national highways to important cities. In addition, improvements will be made to stretches of national highways that require additional flyovers and bypasses given population and housing growth along the highways and increasing traffic. The government has not yet identified a firm investment plan for this phase.

* In Odisha: None yet.

In addition to the above some of the other major highway development activities are:

• Sambalpur-Rourkela (SH-10) : Widening from two lane to Four Lane Divided Carriage Way – Flexible Pavement with Hard Shoulder. This is being done via PPP by the state.
• Capital Region Ring Road (CRRR): New Construction for     4-lane bituminous road in phases with 2-lane road in Phase-1. This is to be done via PPP by the state.
• Bhubaneswar-Paradeep: New Construction for  4-lane bituminous road. Possibly as part of the Paradeep PCPIR.
• Green Field Coastal Corridor from Astarang to Dhamara via Paradeep:  Possibly as part of the Paradeep PCPIR.
• Vijaywada – Ranch highway: Got approval of Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure in October 2010 for a total budget of 1200 crores. The detailed route and map is at http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/1247. The path is Motu – Malkangiri – Jeypore – Koraput – Laxmipur – Rayagada – Digapahandi – Aska – Bhanjanagar – Sankarkhol – Phulbani – Boudha – Kiakata – Rairakhol – Nakti Deol – Chhendipada – Deogarh – Keonjhar – Dhenkikote – Tongabilla – Rairangpur – Jharkhand border

The following annotated map shows the above highways on the Odisha map.

The blue path is the divided 2 lane Vijaywada-Ranchi highway; the red one, already a 4-lane highway as part of the Golden Quadrilateral will become a 6-lane highway; and the orange (state/PPP funded) and pink (part of NHDP) ones will be 4-lane highways. I believe soon the remaining parts of NH 5 (for port connectivity to ports in Balasore district) and NH 6  (as it connects Mumbai-Kolkata) will also become 4-lane highways and all the new ports coming up will be connected to the GQ by 4-lane highways.

The concern is the bottom half of Odisha which will not have good roads except the Vijaywada-Ranchi highway. Unless particular attention is paid to that part, it will fall further behind.

The expressway plan at http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/topics/tnc-all/roads-and-highways-infrastructure-in-orissa/expressways does cover all of Odisha in phases. If parts of it can be expedited then it will help.

Following is from http://www.nhai.org/ppp.htm.

Update on July 12 2011: As per a report in Business Standard:

The financial ministry approves the four laning of Angul-Sambalpur section of NH 42 in Orissa for Rs 1,220.32 crore and two/four laning of Birmitrapur to Barkote section in Orissa (Rs 778.15 crore). These are to be done via PPP.

Original part published on: June 19th. 2008, 11:55pm

Following is an excerpt from a report in New Indian Express.

The Lok Sabha petitions committee rapped the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for the inordinate delay in four-laning of the National Highway No 42 from Angul to Sambalpur. As a number of steel industries and thermal power plants are coming up in Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Angul and Dhenkanal districts, traffic on this route has increased manifold. The State Government has been demanding the NHAI for further widening of this route in view of movement of large number of heavy vehicles. The petitions committee chaired by Pabhunath Singh met at Delhi recently and sought to know from the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways about the delay in four-laning the road. The NHAI officials reportedly told the committee that the proposal of the State had been approved. After survey on traffic intensity on the route, the 107-km stretch between Manguli and Angul has been been identified for four-laning. The Ministry has made a budgetary provision of Rs 2.3 crore in the current year�s budget for feasibility study and preparation of detailed project report (DPR). Steps have been taken to engage a consultant for DPR preparation. … Dharmendra Pradhan, a member of the committee, reportedly suggested that the four-laning should be done up to Jarpada in view of the steel project coming up there. However, the Ministry officials said that there is no proposal for four-laning beyond Angul. On the development of 209-km-long NH-23 from Banarpal to Birmitrapur, the Ministry said that widening of 9- km road to two lane is in progress and the four-laning of Birmitrapur to Rajamunda depends of the traffic intensity. A consultant has been appointed for feasibility study.

(Thanks to Devasis Sarangi for the pointers.)

Following is from a report in Telegraph.

The polluted Daya West Canal would soon be converted into a two-way road network with a water body at the centre at an estimated cost of Rs 30 crore. The integrated Daya West Canal road project would entail a 7.8-km structure from Palasuni to Garage Chhak connecting NH-5 with NH-203.

The work began today with chief minister Naveen Patnaik laying foundation stone for the integrated project, which would have roads of 30-feet width on both sides of the canal. The 60-feet wide canal would be squeezed to half its width. The roads on both the sides of the water channel would also have barricade for safe plying of vehicles.

… the project would be completed within two years. However, keeping in view the traffic problem on the Rasulgarh-Samantarapur stretch on NH-203, it has been decided to speed up work for the road project so that it could help in diverting traffic from NH-5 from Palasuni to Puri.

… The 7.8-km-long structure would include strengthening of the existing road crossings so that people residing on both sides of the Daya West Canal can easily cross the road. In case of necessity, new road crossings will also be added,’’ said Gantayat.

… To facilitate better traffic flow on the road, there would be provisions like bus bay, autorickshaw stand and common parking lots. There is enough land on both the sides of the canal. In future, therefore, the roads on both sides can be expanded to a six-lane or eight-lane structure as per the demand of the growing traffic.

… In future, the road project with the water body can also become a spot to promote water sports or fun activities such as boating. “We have also included possible space to include such activities, in case the civic authorities or the tourism department wishes to take it up,” he added.

Following are excerpts from a report in Times of India.

… NHAI state project director Aditya Kumar Ray said work has started on the flyovers at Rasulgarh and Fire Station and the construction similar projects at CRPF Square, Acharya Vihar and Vani Vihar will commence soon.

Except for the Rasulgarh project, the other flyovers will be similar to the one at Jaydev Vihar. The Rasulgarh flyover will have extra slopes to facilitate seamless traffic flow from Cuttack to Puri as well as on NH-5. It will be aesthetically designed as an entrance point to Bhubaneswar, he said.

… Sources said NHAI needed to acquire more land at Rasulgarh to execute the project. "We are in the process of acquiring some more land at Rasulgarh. Everywhere else in Bhubaneswar, the expansion will happen with the land already acquired," Ray said.

NHAI plans to construct vehicular underpasses at VSS Nagar, Vani Vihar railway overbridge (ROB), Pahal, Press Chowk. The pedestrian underpasses will be built at Kali temple, CRPF Chowk, Iskon temple, OCAC building, RTO office, University Law College and Rasulgarh.

Just outside Bhubaneswar, NHAI will construct flyovers at Phulnakhara, Khapuria, Jagatpur and Manguli in Cuttack. Work for three-lane bridges over the rivers Hansapal, Kathajodi, Mahanadi and Birupa has already started. "The bridges will be hopefully ready by 2014," Ray said.

The existing two-way bridges on these rivers will be made one way and the new bridges will be used for traffic going the other way. The NHAI had signed an agreement with Sri Jagannath Expressway Pvt Ltd, a concessionaire of three private firms (SREI, Simplex and GALFAR), on August 6, 2010, for widening and redevelopment of the 67-km-long Bhubaneswar-Chandikhol section of the Kolkata-Chennai highway. The road will be constructed to sustain vehicular traffic at a speed of 100 km per hour. However, the actual speed limit will be decided by the civic administration, the NHAI official said.

The project will cost Rs 1,047 crore and NHAI will provide Rs 205 crore. The developer will generate the rest of the funds through design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis. "The developer will maintain the road for 26 years,” Ray said.

Once the construction is over, the developer will collect toll from the road users. According to initial estimates, heavy vehicles will have to pay something over Rs 100 and light vehicles would be charged an amount between Rs 80 to Rs 100.

… At present, over 5,000 heavy vehicles pass through the national highway in the city every day. To reduce the traffic load within Bhubaneswar, police divert the vehicles towards Cuttack from Pitapalli via Chandaka. Sources said NHAI has plans to make a bypass road from Khurda to Tangi bypassing Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.

The six new ports are Kirtania (Balasore district), Chudamani (Bhadrak district), Dhamara (Bhadrak district), Astaranga (Puri district), Baliharchandi (Puri district) and Gopalpur (Ganjam district).

Following is a report from Sambada.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

A new road project in Bhubaneswar is expected to relieve traffic congestion to a huge extent on National Highway (NH) – 5.

The upcoming road will link the capital city with the township of Jatni. At present, people travelling from Bhubaneswar to Jatni have to take the NH-5.

Construction on the 14.2km Sundarpada-Harirajpur road is going on at full speed. Work on the project, estimated to cost around Rs 7.53 crore, is expected to be complete by the end of this month. The road was a long-standing demand of the people as the Sundarpada-Jatni stretch has seen rapid growth in the past few months with a number of housing colonies coming up in the area.

While more than 30 apartments have been build near Sundarpada, two engineering colleges and four management colleges also come up in the area.

The project, which started on January 31, 2010, was supposed to be completed by January 30 this year. However, due to problems, including law and order issues, created by villagers in the locality, the work got delayed.

This road already shows up in Google map. In 3-4 years once IIT and NISER campuses are built and become functional near Jatani, this road will become a very important artery of the Bhubaneswar area.

Following are excerpts from a report in Economic Times.

Sunil Agarwal , President & CEO, ARSS Infra in an interview with ET Now talks about the bus terminal development project bagged by the company.

This order its after a long time that I am seeing somebody bag an order of this nature bus terminals. What is the deal, how much is the annual expenditure for this development and what you will get in return?

Yes, this is a deal for developing of bus terminal in Bhubaneswar, Odisha which is a capital of Odisha. We will be developing bus terminal for Odisha Bus Bhubaneswar. This is located in Bermuda. We have paid 56 crore premium to the government of Odisha and we have signed the concession agreement yesterday.

The total project cost of the terminal will be around 1300 crore out of which we will be developing half of the terminal as bus terminal and the basic infrastructure for bus terminal will be also used for the commercial facility which also will be developed by Government of Odisha.

Any income will not come in this year, the income will generate from after 2 year when the bus terminal will be completed. We have to develop the bus terminal in 2 years and we have to operate and maintain it for 50 more years. As far as expenditure is concerned this year we will be spending around 200 to 250 crore and coming forward this total expenditure will be completed in another 5 years.

…

And when will revenues start to kick in from the same projects and what are the kind of margins that you are expecting?

See the overall margins for operating and lease rental and as well as from the commercial development we will be generating around 500 crore of margin in the period of 4 to 5 years and this margin will start generating from 2013 after development of the bus terminal in 2 years. And the basic facilities and infrastructure that we will be developing for the bus terminal the same will be used for commercial developments also.

If you start getting revenues after 2 years, what is the annuity that you expect from this project?

The annuity will be somewhere around 8200 crore a year.

For how many years would this be?

This one will continue for 15 years. …

If all these numbers are right this would be a wonderful facilty. Moreover, it will demonstrate the feasibility of other similar sized or bigger PPP projects, especially Railway Station (IR plans a world class station built on PPP mode), Airport, Metro/Light-rail.

To get a bit of background, we give the following from a slightly older report in Pioneer.

After long, the process has begun for developing three bus stands with modern facilities in the State. The bus stands to be developed in public-private partnership (PPP) mode include Baramunda Bus Stand of Bhubaneswar, Badambadi main Bus Stand of Cuttack and the Dhenkanal Bus Stand.

A decision to this effect was taken in a meeting held under chairmanship of Chief Secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik at the State Secretariat on Wednesday.

After the meeting, the Chief Secretary said to the reporters that while ARSS Infrastructure Project Limited has been given responsibility to develop two bus stands of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, another company PK Behera Construction Private Limited will develop Dhenkanal Bus Stand.

The Development works would be complete by December, 2012. “An MoU has already been signed with the two companies and concessional agreements would be signed soon,” Patnaik informed, adding that the construction work would begin in two months time and the projects would be complete in two years.

Regarding conditions of MoU with the companies, Patanik said the two companies have been asked to use 60 per cent of each of bus stands for bus terminal and 40 per cent as market complex. The lands would be given on lease basis and the company would hand over the terminal areas to the Government after completion of 15 years and market complex area after 90 years, he informed.

The companies would be given 14 acres of land for Baramunda Bus Stand, 4.6 acres of land for Badambadi Bus Stand and 5 acres of land for Dhenkanal Bus Stand. ARSS would give concessional fee of Rs 56 crore and 17.21 crore for Baramunda and Badambadi respectively and PK Behera Construction Private Limited would give 1.26 crore for Dhenkanal Bus Stand.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

The construction of a 75-km ring road circling the capital is likely to begin in two months. 

… Sources said in the first phase of the project a 13km road would be built from Hi-Tech Medical College and Hospital Square to Lingipur near the Daya Bridge on the outskirts of the city.

With tenders having been finalised, the work is likely to begin in the next two months. Sources said that the project will be executed at an estimated cost of Rs 35.09 crore and would be completed in two years. 

… the ring road would help address the communication needs of the city besides acting as a buffer against occasional floods. All the major roads of the city would join the ring road at one point or another.

… once the road materialised the traffic congestion between Rasulgarh Square and Samantarapur would be reduced significantly. This will be an additional support to the National Highway-203 bypass road, which is bearing the brunt of the traffic currently.

… Foundation stone for two more feeder roads, which would ultimately join the ring road, was also laid yesterday. While one of these would involve two-laning of an existing road between Kalpana Square-Jagannath Ashram, the other one would be a four-lane road stretch from Ravi Talkies Square to Sai temple. …

Following are excerpts from a report in tathya.in.

… The first preparatory meet for Nabakalebara was chaired by Chief Minister, was attended by P K Mohapatra, RDC, U N Behera Principal Secretary Home, Aditya Prasad Padhi Principal Secretary to CM.

… A Four Lane National Highway is progressing from Bhubaneswar (Rasulgarh) to Puri (Sipasarubali) with almost half the road will be new alignment. 

Meeting decided to approach National Highway Authority of India(NHAI) to develop Four Lanning of Puri-Konark and Puri-Satapada Road. 

Secondly at least seven roads will be taken up for Four Lanning, which include Pipili-Konark, Charichhak-Niali-Phulanakhara, Balighai-Gop, Pipili-Jatnai, Chandanpur-Rameswar, Bira Harekrishnapur-Talabania and Bira Harekrishnapur-Rahangiria Roads.

… There is a need for creating more hotel and lodging rooms, for which appropriate Government land has to be provided to the promoters adopting transparent procedure.

The following maps show the location of some of the names mentioned above.

One interesting point to note is that Puri district’s area is 3,479 sq. km, which is comparable to Goa’s 3,702 sq km. Population wise they are also comparable. Goa’s population is 1.4 million while Puri district’s population is about 1.5 million.

Past the Nabakalebar in 2015, the Odisha government may think of building up on the infrastructure and try to benchmark Puri district with respect to Goa. It may also consider to make it a special district with some special laws that will allow it the flexibility to become as big a tourist hub (or bigger) than Goa, minus the negatives.

Following is from Dharitri:

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

The work on five major National Highway (NH) projects in the state- Bhubaneswar-Puri, Bhubaneswar-Sambalpur, Bhubaneswar-Chandikhole, Sambalpur-Bargarh and Remudi-Rajamunda (NH-215) will begin in February 2011. While work on four-laning of the Bhubaneswar-Puri NH is expected to be completed soon, the remaining projects will be commissioned within three years."The work on these NH projects will commence in February 2011 and the projects are expected to be commissioned within three years. The work is being taken up on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode and the cost assessment will be made by NHAI. …

While work will be taken up for four-laning of Bhubaneswar-Puri (60 km) and Sambalpur-Bargarh (88-km) NHs, the Bhubaneswar-Sambalpur and Bhubaneswar-Chandikhole (62 km) highways will be six laned. As per the thumb rule Rs 4 crore will be spent per km on building these highways.

Following are excerpts from a report in Business Standard.

"The Government of India has announced a major policy initiative to offer Viability Gap Finding (VGF) for providing road and rail connectivity to the minor ports. As per this policy, the Government of India will bear 50 per cent of the cost for the road and rail infrastructure, the state government will provide 30 per cent while the remaining 20 per cent will be borne by the port developers”, G K Dhal, principal secretary (commerce & transport) said.

For the proposed port at Bichitrapur in Balasore district, the road connectivity would be between Jaleshwar and Bichitrapur while the rail connectivity would be from Digha to Bichitrapur.Similarly, for the port proposed at Subarnarekha mouth, also in Balasore district, the road connectivity is proposed between Basta and Choumukha whereas the rail connectivity would be from Haldipada to Choumukha.

The road connectivity for the Dhamara port in Bhadrak district has been envisaged from Jamujhadi on NH-5 to the port site. The rail link is being developed between Bhadrak and Dhamara.

… "The Orissa government has also proposed an industrial corridor on the Meramandali-Angul-Talcher-Chhendipada belt linking the coal mines, power plants and steel plants. Rail India Technical & Economic Services (Rites), the consultancy arm of Indian Railways, has submitted a draft feasibility report in this regard which is under the scrutiny of the state government. The Orissa government intends to form a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for the purpose. This common corridor will be co-habited by multiple players and can be financed by participative funding”, he added.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

The traffic woes of the people commuting between Rasulgarh and Samantarapur are likely to come to an end with the construction of the proposed 11km bypass road from Bhuasuni temple to Daya bridge.

Part of the 67.25km NH-203 project, the bypass road will not only provide better and faster communication facilities to the people of 11 villages from Pandra to the Daya bridge near Lingipur, but also help commuters between Cuttack and Puri avoid the congested capital. The project will be undertaken by the Bhubaneswar Expressway Pvt. Ltd, for which tenders have been finalised.

Project director of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Aditya Kumar Ray said the bypass road has been proposed specifically to address the traffic problem on the stretch from Rasulgarh and Samntarapur. …

… Ray said though the work is supposed to start from January 30, land acquisition problems were likely to cause some delay and ultimately the project may kick off in the first week of February.

… The project is likely to be over in two and a half years. To be executed in the design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) mode, the road would be handed over to the NHAI by the operators after 29 years.