___________

Update: Following is from a report in Business Standard.

… "The Ministry of shipping and highways has more or less agreed to bear 50 per cent of the cost of road and rail connectivity for the minor ports proposed in the state. The ministry had asked us to submit cost estimates for the same and accordingly, we had submitted Rs 1200-crore plan for offering road and rail connectivity for the upcoming minor ports", an official source told Business Standard.

According to the proposal, the cost of rail and road connectivity for the minor ports would be shared equally between the Centre and the port developers.

… Among the 14 locations identified by the state government for the development of ports are Dhamara, Jatadhari Muhan, Barunei Muhan, Astaranga, Bichitrapur, Chudamani and Kirtania to name a few.

The state government had already inked concession agreements with the developers for the development of ports at Dhamara, Gopalpur and Kirtania.

The Orissa government has also signed MoUs (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Hyderabad-based Navayuga Engineering Private Ltd and Aditya Birla Group for setting up of ports at Astaranga and Chudamani respectively.

Following is from a report in Business Standard.

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

The investments have made 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 this year. …

DPCL, a 50:50 joint venture between Tata Steel and L&T, is the biggest investor, with its investment till the second quarter of 2011-12 standing at Rs 3,570.35 crore.

The port developer, who has already begun operations, has invested Rs 762.79 crore, Rs 1,088.26 crore and Rs 1,059.40 crore in 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11 respectively. In 2011-12, DPCL has invested Rs 60.45 crore till the end of September.

Gopalpur Port Ltd (GPL), a special purpose vehicle promoted jointly by Orissa Stevedores Ltd and Sara International Limited (SIL) has invested Rs 421.09 crore during 2007-08 to September-end of 2011-12. The port developer which is developing the seasonal port at Gopalpur into an all-weather port, has invested Rs 51.09 crore in 2007-08, Rs 30 crore in 2008-09, Rs 50 crore in 2009-10, Rs 40 crore in 2010-11 and Rs 250 crore in this fiscal (till September-end).

The state government has asked the port promoters to commission second phase of the port operations by March 2013. GPL has already claimed to have achieved financial closure of Rs 1,400 crore for the first stage of Phase-II of the deep sea port with the signing of loan agreement with a consortium of 11 banks.

The port at Subarnarekha river mouth, proposed by Chennai-based Creative Port Development, has seen investment of Rs 221 crore.

Creative Port Development had inked an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the state government on December 18, 2006 for setting up a port with an initial capacity of 10 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) which was to be scaled up to 40 mtpa in 10 years.

The port developer had also entered into a concession agreement with the state government on January 11, 2008. As per this agreement, the port developer would share revenue with the state government at the rate of five per cent from first to fifth year, eight per cent from sixth to 10th year, 10 per cent from 11th to 15th year and 12 per cent for the remaining 15 years.

The port at Astaranga in Puri district has witnessed an investment of Rs 50 crore over the past four years.

The port project is being taken up at a cost of Rs 6,500 crore. The initial capacity of the port will be 25 mtpa which will be eventually scaled up to 70 mtpa. The state government had entered into an MoU with Hyderabad-based Navyug Engineering Ltd on December 22, 2008.

The project proponent had signed a concession agreement with the state government in November 2010.

Please help me fill the missing data in the table below. (The important data we need is the route kms for the red states in Column 2 as those states do not have a division HQ of that zone.)

Why it is important that SER have a division in Odisha?

• As we will show below SER, without a proper representation in Odisha, has badly messed up in Odisha.
• SER has neglected stations in Odisha. In particular, it has neglected Rourkela, the second largest metropolitan area of Odisha in many ways. For example, Rourkela is not in the list of world-class stations.

How has SER messed up in Odisha?

• The Rupsa-Bangiriposi conversion to broad gauge has been messed up badly. See page 8-9 of 2006-may-CAG report.



• Alignment of Jaleswar – Digha line.
• The dangling lines



• etc.

Having made the point that SER needs to have a division HQ in Odisha, the best location for such a division HQ would be Rourkela. It would of course need a reorganization of the current division break-up. Below we will give some suggestions on a possible reorganization.

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

The state government has started work on development of a railway corridor through Choudwar to Rourkela to allow ease of inward and outward transportation of goods from the industrial hubs and mining belts along the region.

Land acquisition for the project, the first of its kind initiative by a state government, has already been initiated by the Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco). The project would go on ground after the land acquisition and is targeted to be completed by 2015, said Idco CMD Priyabrata Patnaik on Friday.

The corridor involves development of extensive rail and road connectivity, along with provisioning of water supply and other infrastructural facilities. The corridor would encompass two track railway lines and six-lane road passing through the industrial hubs and the coal mining belts. New industrial areas and downstream units would be developed along the corridor.

Common infrastructure facilities under the corridor would solve the problems of inward and outward transportation of goods and minerals. The stretch would pass through the heart of coal mining operations in the state, which harbours about 65 billion tonne of reserves. The coal reserves in the Talcher belt only is around 43 billion tonne.

The corridor would cover 17 large and mega-industries, along with 57 other units, through the stretch from Choudwar to Rourkela. Traffic projection on the route is given out as 8.7 million tonne.

The route would have 163 km of railway track length and 465 km on road. As many as 308 minor bridges and 77 major bridges would have to be constructed on it, said Patnaik.

Note 1: The 163 km of railway track probably refers to the Talcher-Bimlagarh segment.

Note 2: Although the above report only mentions the Choudwar-Rourkela part, in earlier documents there is mention of Paradeep-Choudwar-Rourkela industrial corridor. See for example this 2009 Business Standard report. Following are some excerpts from that.

The Orissa government plans to develop an industrial corridor running from Paradeep to Rourkela through industrial hubs like Choudwar, Talcher and Sambalpur.

Though the initial proposal was to have an industrial corridor originating from Choudwar to Rourkela, the proposal was modified to extend the corridor till Paradeep to allow inward and outward transport of goods through the Paradeep port, sources said.

… The proposed industrial corridor will be in line with the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and is designed to pass through national highway no.42 and national highway no 5 (A).

Under the project, both road and rail corridor will be developed, which will be the backbone of the proposed project. The industrial estates and down stream units would be developed over 25 km area on both sides of the corridor.

IL&FS has been appointed as the consultant for the project and it has already submitted the pre-feasibility study report to the industry department on the project. However, the detail cost of the project is yet to be worked out yet, sources added.

…

The latest initiative of the state government follows a similar initiative to develop a common ‘rail-road-water pipeline and infrastructure corridor’ in Meramundali-Angul-Talcher-Chhendipada belt, to facilitate movement of coal in the Talcher coalfield area.

The project is estimated to cost about Rs 5000 crore including Rs 2000 crore for 2-line rail corridor and Rs 1100 crore for 4 lane road alongside it. The land width of the proposed corridor will be 300 metre which includes 60 metre for road and 20 metre for water pipeline.

The total length of the corridor is 137 kilometre which includes length of 43 number of major bridges to be constructed on this stretch. RITES Ltd has already submitted a pre-feasibility report to the state owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa Ltd. (Idco) on the project.

The project is designed to have multi-point centralised loading stations conceived along the corridor rather than individual bulb connections with a view to avoid interference or wastage of coal bearing areas. Road and water pipe alignment will run parallel to rail alignment, sources said.

It will be connected to rail line at three locations- Jharpada, Angul and Budhapanka. The common corridor will have multiple entry and exit points and no surface crossing. Besides, flyovers are proposed to avoid cross movements at junction stations.

This ‘rail-road-water pipeline and infrastructure corridor’ in Meramundali-Angul-Talcher-Chhendipada belt is projected to handle 113 million tonne coal by 2014-15. It includes 55 million tonne coal movement required by the power companies, 40.76 million tonne by steel companies and 17.22 million tonne by other industries.

(Appeal to readers: I would appreciate any additional pointers to literature where the knowledge center aspects of the Odisha buddhist monuments have been discussed and/or they have been compared with the well-known buddhist sites in India such as Nalanda, Bodhgaya, Sanchi, etc.)

We all have read about Nalanda and Taxila as ancient learning centers and they are often referred to the as precursor of the present day universities. In Odisha the yet to be identified Puspagiri mahavihara as well as the Lalitgiri-Ratnagiri-Udaygiri  have been compared with Nalanda in the art history and Buddhist literature. Following are some slides (in facebook) which compiles that information. In these slides we quote extensively from Mrs. Debala Mitra’s two books. Mrs. Mitra was the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India (1975-1983) [Page 448 of this book] and has written extensively on various Monuments of India.

The above slides do not have any pictures. As is mentioned in some of the slides, the Lalitgiri-Ratnagiri-Udaygiri Mahaviharas are also comparable to Bodhgaya in certain respects and one slide mentioned how none of the monasteries in Nalanda can compare with the embellishment in one of the monastery found in Ratnagiri. The following pictures, again from facebook, gives one the idea of what has been found in Lalitgiri-Ratnagiri-Udaygiri and the beauty and significance of them.

In 2010 the Indian Parliament passed the Nalanda International University Bill. This university is in the making now and this wikipedia page has information on it. We hope that some day more people in Odisha and India will know about Lalitgiri-Ratnagiri-Udaygiri and a similar university (perhaps called Puspagiri University, the yet to be identified Mahavihara about which Hiuen Tsang wrote glowingly) will be established in Odisha. Towards that effort some background information has been compiled in a facebook page and a facebook account. Following is a glimpse of the information that has been collected.

The above is a good idea.

• A plan over a larger area will avoid congestion and slums that are typical of densly packed areas.
• Another big benefit will be that the term "Capital Area" will make it easier for institutions, companies and other entities to come to the gretaer area rather than coming to "Bhubaneswar". For example, many institutions that are looking for land in Bhubaneswar are hesitant to locate in Kendrapada or Jagatsinghpur; even though the political leadership is very welcoming.  But once the term "Capital Area" encompasses Kendrapada and Jagatsinghpur, these institutions will be less hesitant to come there.

So while the current Bhubaneswar and Cuttack planned areas will sever as the core urban area, the larger Capital Area development region will morph to a sub-urban area which down the road will touch the metropolitan areas around Angul in the west and Berhampur in the south.

We wrote about this in http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/3637.

A similar term needs to be coined for the greater Sambalpur-Jharsuguda-Rourkela area. See http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/3660 , http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/3672 and http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/3668.

Perhaps it can be called the "Western Odisha Development Region".

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.

Update:

Following is from a report in Business Standard.

Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) has committed an investment of Rs 500 crore for a downstream industrial park in Orissa.

This is the latest in a string of investment plans announced by the company in the state which includes a greenfield steel plant, a coal to liquid project and a proposed deep sea port.

The steel company on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state government for setting up the park at Parang in Angul district. The downstream industrial park is expected to attract investments of Rs 5,000 crore besides generating employment opportunities for 32,000 people, both direct and indirect.

The park is also set to generate tax revenue worth Rs 700 crore per annum for the state government.

The pact was signed between T Ramachandru, principal secretary (industries), Orissa government and Anand Goel, joint managing director of JSPL.

The park, to come up over 1,400 acres of land, is expected to be operational by the end of 2014. It will focus on medium and small scale downstream units that would both add value and result in increased industrial activity.

The industries targeted for the park include steel rolling and other mills for downstream steel products, forging units, beam welding plants, ferro alloy units, pipe manufacturing units, galvanizing and colour coating units, foundries as well as food processing and coal storage units.

Update: The updated train timings of this extended train is as follows. It is slower than expected and takes 4 hours between Rourkela and Hatia. But those extra stops, many in Jharkhand, makes it easy for the Jharkhand people to accept this extension. That may be the reason it has these many stops in between.

(Thanks to rourkelacity.com for the pointer to this topic.)

Following is from a report in Telegraph.

… the Jammu Tawi-Hatia Express will be extended till Rourkela from November 12. Hitherto, Rourkela could enjoy the services of only Hatia-Puri Tapaswini Express, Hatia-Bhubaneswar Garib Rath Express and Hatia-Jharsuguda Passenger.

The above report is from the Jharkhand edition of Telegraph. It is nice to hear that they are taking this news positively, unlike many places which complain when a train originating/terminating from their city is extended.

Although this is a slow train with many stops, this will be the first direct connection between a city in Odisha and Jammu Tawi. The major en-route stops of this train are: Muri, Allahabad, Kanpur, Tundla, Aligarh, Delhi, Sonipat, Panipat, Kurukshetra, Ambala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Pathankot Jn. From Ranchi it currently takes 30:25 hrs to Delhi. It takes about 2:30-3 hrs from Rourkela to Ranchi. So from Rourkela it will take about 33 hrs to Delhi. In comparison Utkal Express plus the 08177 Tata-JSG special takes 26:25 + 2:20 = 28:45hrs. So although it is not that good an alternative to travel to Delhi, it provides new connectivity between Rourkela to many other cities such as: Allahabad, Kanpur, Tundla, Aligarh, Sonipat, Panipat, Kurukshetra, Ambala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Pathankot Jn and Jammu Tawi.

This extension is the result of the efforts of the people of Rourkela. Their movement to provide better connectivity and facilities at Rourkela should be energized by this initial result.

From an initial look, Rourkela has good connectivity to places in the west (Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, etc.) and Kolkata.

With the above mentioned train the connectivity to Delhi will be decent and as mentioned their will be new connectivity to many new cities in the North. (Earlier there was only a biweekly train to/from Varanasi.)

In terms of connectivity to Southern cities the main trains are: the daily Allepey train with stoppages at Vizianagaram, Vizag, Vijaywada, Chennai, Coimbatore, Palghat, and Kochi (Ernakulum); thrice a week to/from Bangalore via Vijaywada and Tirupati; and weekly to Hyderabad. So the connectivity to Bangalore and Hyderabad needs to be improved urgently. Connectivity to/from Hyderabad could be easily improved by extending the biweekly Sambalpur-Nizamabad express to Rourkela. (One needs to check the current rake-sharing arrangements for it.)

The site http://rourkelarail.wetpaint.com/page/DEMANDS lists a bunch of demands from some railfans from Rourkela. It would help if they make a prioritized list of their demands for trains (new, extensions, frequency increases): Top, Top 3, Top 5. Note that diversions and rerouting of trains is extremely rare as the people in the current routes (who will lose that train) will oppose it. So such demands undermine the effort.

(Thanks to a reader for the pointer.)

Following is from a report in Telegraph.

The Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) for setting up the Rs 2.7 lakh crore petroleum, chemicals and petrochemicals investment region (PCPIR) near Paradip was signed between the state and the Centre today.

The PCPIR will come up over 284.15sqkm in Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts with a proposed investment of Rs 2,77,734 crore.

While Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) chairman-cum managing director Priyabrata Patnaik represented the state, additional secretary of the department of chemical and petrochemicals Geeta Menon signed on behalf of the Union government. Patnaik said, “The MoA was signed and the project has got legal sanction. All the work for the project will now proceed according to the plan.”

… Sources said the state government has requested the Centre to take up the project work in the 12th five year plan. Under the plan, an airport will come up at Paradip and two direct roads from Bhubaneswar to Puri Paradeep will be built. One of these will begin from Uttara Square on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar.

Idco will act as a nodal department to help the government develop the PCPIR. “A meeting chaired by CM Naveen Patnaik is likely to be held this week to finalise the detailed project report.”

An apex body under the chairmanship of the chief minister has already been constituted to look into the implementation of the project. Under the proposed plan, a regional development authority (RDA) will be set up. The RDA will have autonomous power and other authorities will not be able to intervene in the work of the RDA.

… Officials hope that land acquisition for the project would not be a problem. “Instead of taking lands directly from people, we will go for swapping of land. If the government takes one acre of land, the same area of land will be allotted to the owner in another place,” said an official associated with the project.

Sources said the government had asked the Centre to build a coastal corridor that would connect Paradip to Chennai. “Andhra Pradesh has also supported Orissa. The Centre has taken the demand seriously,” said the official.

The Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) will be the anchor tenant for the project. The PCPIR will also include the IOCL’s refinery at Paradip, which in the first phase, will have an investment of Rs 29,777 crore. The refinery will have a crude and vacuum distillation unit, a hydro-cracking unit and a delayed coker unit. It will also have an integrated gasification combined cycle plant for production of steam, power and hydrogen from petroleum coke for captive use in the refinery.

Another leading player, Deepak Fertilizers, will set up a greenfield ammonium nitrate plant in the PCPIR. Tata Steel and the South Africa-based Sasol have expressed interest in setting up a coal to liquid project under the PCPIR. The project is likely to come up by 2018 in an area of 3,000 acres. The plant will produce 80,000 barrels of liquid fuel from coal per day.

According to the plan, Rs 13,634 crore will be invested for infrastructure development in the PCPIR. Of this, the Centre will provide Rs 716 crore under Viability Gap Funding (VGF) to ensure infrastructure linkages such as rail, road (national highways), ports, airports and telecom through public-private partnership. The state’s share will be Rs 1,796 crore while the remaining Rs 11,122 crore will be generated through private participation.

I somehow missed this article where Shekhar Gupta has thoroughly analyzed and listed all that is wrong with the then Jan Lokpal Bill. (I think the Jan Lokpal Bill has since been modified. The version at http://www.indiaagainstcorruption.org/downloads.html is dated June 21, 2011. So some of the issues pointed out by Shekhar Gupta may no longer hold. Nevertheless, it gives an idea of the mindset of and (dis)ability of the Jan Lokpal bill drafters in drafting such an important bill.) Following are some excerpts:

… The Musharraf reference is also tempting because the standard answer from this group of civil society leaders to the question if their bill violates the basic spirit of the Constitution is, so what, the Constitution can be amended as it has been so many times. But the kind, and number of Constitutional amendments this draft will require, will need a Musharraf.

… Where will the rest come from? Your guess is as good as mine. All of these will have to be people of “unimpeachable integrity” and also “should have demonstrated their resolve to fight corruption in the past.” From where will you find these people, particularly as you are working on the presumption that a large number of judges of the Supreme Court and high courts do not pass that test of unimpeachable integrity. And who will choose them? A committee headed by the prime minister who, in turn, will be under the jurisdiction of the Lokpal he chooses. But, wait, it is more complicated than that. This committee shall include the two youngest judges of our high courts and Supreme Court respectively, the presumption being that the young are cleaner (Clause 6, 5 c and d). But, if a Lokpal has to be fired for misdemeanour, the case will be heard by a bench consisting of the five seniormost judges of the Supreme Court? Confused? Why are the youngest virtuous while hiring, and the seniormost equally so while firing?

… If this is not sounding impossible already, this search committee has to recommend at least “three times the names as there are vacancies” (Clause 6, 10 f). So if you thought it is hard enough to find so many perfect men and women, you now know that you have to find thrice as many. And, of course, when the selection committee’s choice is finally forwarded to the president, she “shall” sign it within a month.

… If the idea of this bill is to take away all discretion, and strike terror in the hearts of the bad guys, it does that very effectively.

Except, so many of the rest, generally innocent Indians, may live in that terror as well. The bill, for example, entitles the Lokpal to collect 10 per cent of all the fines collected, stolen wealth recovered, or even national wealth saved from being stolen, in its own corpus for its own use, thereby creating extortionist incentive: the more you value, the more you collect.

… If you report on another citizen and he is caught and convicted, you would similarly earn 10 per cent of the money recovered, and/ or the money saved from being swindled as your reward. We will, therefore, be incentivised by law to become a nation of cops and spies, sneaking on neighbours and family for pecuniary gain. Such things happen in North Korea and if it is your argument that its people are happier than us Indians, we will need some convincing.

… the Lokpal members will be deemed police officers, have the powers of seizure and search without going to a magistrate — precisely the question with Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act) — have protection of contempt of court law, will function as civil courts, be investigators and prosecutors, throwing out the very principle of separation of powers, checks and balances (Clauses 8-19, 21, 24, 25, 27, 32).

… This bill, in this form, is designed to match the dictum of “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It also presumes all Indians are thieves, unless proven otherwise, and can only be governed in a police state. Further, that a society of a billion-plus thieves can be cleansed by barely a dozen individuals armed with the most undemocratic law drafted in a democracy outside its Parliament. That is why this needs greater, cooler discussion.

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.

Update on May6th 2012: 300 crores for Malkangiri and Sukma (Chhatisgarh) under the Special Area Development plan (SADP).

The initial list of 83 Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts under Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme is at http://mha.nic.in/pdfs/LWE-aftdDist-131210.pdf. A jpg copy is given below.

In the 83 SRE districts all the expenses incurred on security in these districts are reimbursed by the MHA. These districts were identified after a survey where Maoist violence incidents are more than 20 percent of all the incidents in that district.

As per a recent news item in Pioneer, four more districts from Odisha have been included in this list. They are: Nuapada, Bargarh, Bolangir and Kalahandi.

Besides the LWE SRE scheme, there is an Integrated Action Plan for Backward and Tribal districts. Originally there were sixty such districts out of which:

(a) Five are in Odisha. They are: Deogarh, Gajapati, Malkangiri, Rayagada and Sambalpur. Each of these districts get a block grant of 30 crores.

(b) The eight KBK districts are also included in the IAP and they get the 30 crores each plus 130 crores for all 8 as part of the BRGF (Backward Regions Grant Fund). The eight KBK districts are:  Kalahandi, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Koraput, Rayagada, Malkangiri, Balangir and Sonepur.

(c) As per a recent news item in Pioneer, three more districts from Odisha have been included in this list. They are: Ganjam, Nayagarh and Jajpur.

In total there are 14 districts from Odisha that are covered under the IAP. They are: Balangir, Deogarh, Gajapati, Ganjam, Jajpur, Kalahandi, Koraput, Malkangiri,  Nabarangpur, Nayagarh, Nuapada, Rayagada, Sambalpur and Sonepur.

In total, 20 of Odisha’s 30 districts are now covered under these schemes. Following is the list.

• Balangir (IAP, KBK, LWE SRE)
• Baragarh (LWE SRE)
• Deogarh (IAP, LWE SRE)
• Dhenkanal (LWE SRE)
• Gajapati (IAP, LWE SRE)
• Ganjam (IAP, LWE SRE)
• Jajpur (IAP, LWE SRE)
• Kalahandi (IAP, KBK, LWE SRE)
• Kandhamal (LWE SRE)
• Keonjhar (LWE SRE, LWE SRE)
• Koraput (IAP, KBK, LWE SRE)
• Malkangiri (IAP, KBK, LWE SRE) (Update: SADP)
• Mayurbhanj (LWE SRE)
• Nabarangpur (IAP, KBK, LWE SRE)
• Nayagarh (IAP, LWE SRE)
• Nuapada (IAP, KBK, LWE SRE)
• Rayagada (IAP, KBK, LWE SRE)
• Sambalpur (IAP, LWE SRE)
• Sonepur (IAP, KBK)
• Sundergarh (LWE SRE)

The ten districts that are not covered above are: Angul, Balasore, Bhadrak, Bauda, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Jharsuguda, Kendrapada, Khurda and Puri.

Following is an excerpt from a PTI report in zeenews.

In a bid to tackle the Naxal menace in 60 most affected districts, the Centre has decided to start major initiatives there which includes IAY housing for people whose homes have been destroyed and construction of concrete roads.

The Rural Development Ministry has also planned to start a PPP initiative with private companies for value addition in non-timber forest produce in six districts of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh as a pilot project.

… "We are actually going to them for four major decisions. First is Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. We are going to allow concrete roads to be built in the highly affected blocks in the 60 districts. Normally, we build black top roads. But on security point of view, cement concrete roads will be done," Ramesh said.

He said 90 per cent of amount for the construction of the roads will be borne by the Centre and 10 per cent will be borne by the state. At present, the ratio stands at 50-50.

The government also decided to make all sections of people whose houses were destroyed in Naxal violence eligible for housing under the Indira Awas Yojana in these districts.

… "For disabled, widows and old age beneficiaries, the district administration will construct the IAY houses. Right now, what happens is, we give the money, yet these people are unable to construct houses," the Minister added.

All the 60 IAP districts would be covered under the National Rural Livelihood Mission by March 31, 2013, he said.

"We will start a programme for placement linked jobs for 3,00,000 unemployed youths in these 60 districts over the next five years. These youths will be trained and provided jobs," Ramesh said.

Following is from a report in Telegraph by Bibhuti Barik.

The Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT) here has perfected the technology of processing ilmenite, a compound of iron and titanium, which is iron-black or steel-gray, found abundantly in the sands of Orissa’s beaches.

IMMT scientists are now planning to set up a demonstration plant at Orissa Sands Complex, a division of Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL) at Chatrapur, for processing ilmenite as the ore is found in the beach sand of Chhatrapur and is being processed by IREL. The cost-effective technology will work wonders for extracting titanium dioxide and high-value iron from low-grade ilmenite.

Ilmenite is non-toxic and its use in biomedical substances does not create any physiological problem. On the other hand, titanium, in its pure metallic and alloy forms, finds applications in aerospace, defence applications, chemical and related metallurgical industries.

“The ilmenite processing technology developed by IMMT scientists will help the nation as the prime raw material for titanium production — rulite — is now in short supply. So, ilmenite is the best alternative raw material for fulfilling the demand of titanium,” said P.S. Mukherjee, chief scientist and head, advanced materials and technology department, IMMT.

“The new technology serves two benefits — it does not produce toxic by-products and it produces high value iron as a value-added by-product for the automobile industry,” said the chief scientist.

… “But this new process is an environment-friendly one. This is for the first time such a technology is being planned in the country. With proper industry support and more and more R&D support, it can be developed further,” the scientist said.

The world’s reserve of ilmenite ore is estimated at around 1.8 to 2 billion tonnes and India has the largest and richest reserve. The commercial deposits are found in the beach sands of Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. However, only 0.4 million tonnes are processed by IREL. Majority of the deposits are exported as pure ilmenite without any value addition.

IMMT director Baradakanta Mishra said: “Processing technologies of two metals — nickel and ilmenite — perhaps is the best contribution of IMMT to the country. However, more financial help should be extended to the laboratory by the industry and the government. Even with a limited reserve, China is supplying 70 per cent of the Earth’s rare materials whereas we are exporting valuable sand-rich ores to foreign countries without any value addition. The pilot plant should be scaled up and more fund flow to IMMT can result in innovative research in mineral processing.”

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.

Following are some of the Odia movies that I found in the Internet (mostly in youtube).  As I see them, I will add some comments.

1. Agnishikha.
2. Allo mo kandhei.
3. Bhukha.
4. Chaka chaka bhaunri.
5. Dhanre rakhibu sapatha mora.
6. Dhire dhire prema hela. (Barsha and Sabyasachi. So so. First half is tolerable. Second half is atrocious.)
7. Dil tote deichhi. (another link)
8. I love you. (another link) (Remake of a 1999 Tamil movie) [Highest grossing Odia film in Box office]
9. Jajabara
10. Kandhei akhire luha.
11. Kau duniyaru asila bandhu.
12. Lakhye siba puji paichi pua.
13. Laksmana Rekha
14. Laxmi Pratima.
15. Love Dot Com.
16. Manini
17. Mate anidela lakhya faguna.
18. Megha sabarire asiba pheri.
19. Mita re mita. (another link)
20. Mu Sapanara soudagara.
21. Nandini I love you.
22. Neijare megha mote. (Barsha and Anubhav.)( Loved it.)
23. Pagala karichhi paunji tora.
24. Pagala Premi.
25. Prem rogi. (another link)
26. Priya mo priya.
27. Sahara Jaluchi. (another link)
28. Samaya hatare dori.
29. Sanju aou Sanjana. (Babusan.) (Just saw a few minutes. Looks like a remake of the Telugu film Parugu.)
30. Sasura ghara zindabad.
31. Sathi re.
32. Satru Sanghar.
33. Subha bibaha. (Barsha, Akash, et al. Did not like it. Badly edited.)
34. Suna chadhei mo rupa chadhei, 2009. (another link) (Watched this. It is a remake of a  2005 Telugu hit. The actress Barsha has done well, even when compared to Trisha in the Telugu original. Anubhav is not impressive, especially when one compares to Siddharth in the Telugu one. Siddhant has done ok, but Srihari in the Telugu one is better. Finally, Prakash Raj in the Telugu one is unmatchable.)
35. Tate mo rana. (another link)
36. To akhire mo akase ki ranga lagile.
37. To bina bhala lagena. (another link)
38. Topae sindura ditopa luha.
39. To paeen.
40. Tora mora jodi sundara.
41. Tu eka ama saha bharasha.
42. Tu mo akhira tara.
43. Tu mo girlfriend.

Thanks to Saket Sahu @ Orissatoday google group for the pointer.

Following is from a report in Pioneer.

The Indian Academy of Paediatrics, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and sahidnagar Socio-Cultural Society have planned a unique park for the differently-abled children of the city to be built up approximately at a cost of Rs 3 crore on PPP mode.

As per national coordinator of IAP Disability Chapter Dr Arabinda Mohanty, the park is planned over an area of 17,000 sqf near the ESI Hospital and will provide an entertaining and amusing centre to over 700 spastic children in the city.

The proposed park will be far ahead of the parks in Mysore and Bilaspur (Chhatisgarh) in many aspects including it being 100 per cent disabled-friendly with merry-go-round provisions for children in wheel chairs and modern gadgets for amusement , besides physiotherapists, supporting staff and a standby ambulance.

Dr Mohanty said though the park will be meant for the wheelchair-bound children, normal children would also be allowed but only after they are sensitised to related issues. “Entry of normal children will help in mainstreaming of the spastics and in increasing the understanding of the normal children about spasticity,” he said.

Following are excerpts from a report in ibnlive.com.

The coffee plantation would be taken up in the undivided Koraput district where currently about 1,300 hectares are under cultivation. …

It has been decided to invest the ` 400 crore over a period of 10 years from 2011-12. The ICB would fund ` 35 crore for a programme on organic coffee production in the State. Rest of the funds will be pooled from MGNREGS, Revised Long Term Action Plan (RLTAP) for KBK districts and other schemes.

As per the survey conducted by the Coffee Board, an area of 11,650 hectare in the Koraput, Kalahandi, Ganjam, Phulbani and Keonjhar districts has been found suitable for coffee cultivation.

Public sector industries like Nalco, Hindustan Aluminium Company and a host of private sector enterprises have evinced interest to take up coffee cultivation in about 1,000 acres which is mined for bauxite ore extraction.

 … For Orissa, the Board is implementing a Special Area Programme with the objective of checking ‘Podu’ cultivation, rejuvenating small coffee holdings and expanding coffee plantation in the tribal sector by providing a subsidy of ` l5,000 per hectare.

Besides, the Board is also providing financial assistance for installation of coffee processing units and imparting training to coffee growers on latest coffee husbandry practices and scientific methods of cultivation.

Six hulling units were also supplied under the scheme to the State during 1999- 2000 to process coffee at farm level.

At present, there are about 122 private coffee growers in the Koraput who have taken to commercial cultivation. …

Update on 10th October 2011: The Delhi – Bhubaneswar – Port Blair Air India (6 days a week) flight will allow boarding and deplaning of passengers at Bhubaneswar. This will not only provide Bhubaneswar – Port Blair connectivity; it will also incraese connectivity between Bhubaneswar and Delhi. Air India also plans to have another daily Bhubaneswar – Delhi flight taking the total number of daily AI flights between these cities to (almost) three   and taking the total number of daily Bhubaneswar – Delhi flights to almost eight – 7 dailies and one 6 days a week. Following is a screen copy from http://www.cleartrip.com/ on the dates Nov 2 2011 and Nov 3 2011.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Deccan Herald.

Keeping in mind the high tourist potential, Air India subsidiary Alliance Air has introduced a direct flight to Port Blair from here via Bhubaneswar and would operate a new 70-seater jet plane.

Giving holiday makers another reason to cheer, Air India’s direct flight AI 9603/9604 would be operated with Bombardier’s CRJ-700 on all days of the week, except Saturday, a spokesperson said.

The above news item is confirmed from the Air India web site. See the screen capture below.

As the following map shows Bhubaneswar is very close to the straight line between Delhi and Port Blair. The stop-over in Bhubaneswar allows Air India to use a smaller aircraft that can be refueled in Bhubaneswar. I hope Air India will allow people to get on and off at Bhubaneswar.

As the map above shows Bhubaneswar is also very close to the straight line connecting Delhi to Jakarta, Delhi to Singapore and Delhi to Kwalalumpur. I hope  some of the airlines take note of that and introduce flights between those places with a stopover in Bhubaneswar.

Update: Mumbai to Hongkong and Mumbai to Taipei also passes very close to Bhubaneswar. Updated the map above to illustrate that.

Following is from a report in Telegraph.

The capital will soon have a mega-tourist circuit for which the Centre has sanctioned Rs 8.14 crore.

The proposed tourist circuit envisages, among others things, renovation of two major roads in Old Town area, 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, the Old Town area and Khandagiri via Dhauli.

Moreover, a 3,000-seater amphitheatre will be constructed opposite Madhusudan Park at Pokhariput.

… Samal spoke to reporters after the heritage walk, which was held today as part of World Tourism Day function.

The circuit will aim at facilitating various cultures as the city is perhaps the only one place in the region where three major religions — Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism — have their presence and the Daya riverbed is linked to the transformation of Emperor Ashok from Chandashok to Dharmashok.

… While the mega circuit will be part of the development of the ambitious Bhubaneswar-Puri-Chilika tourism sector, the Old Town area of the city will have a 40-feet road near the temple connecting Kotitirtheswar Lane and a proposed three-acre parking site.

Later, the same road will be extended up to Kedar Gouri temple. These two roads, in turn, will provide a better corridor so that tourist vehicles can pass through the areas smoothly. Similarly, a ‘parikrama’ or circular road will be planned around the Lingaraj temple.

“Apart from providing better connectivity to the Old Town area, the side walls of various buildings and structures will be decorated with tiles of red laterite stones. The concept has already been adopted in various western cities and states such as Rajasthan. …

The mega circuit will also emphasise on infrastructure development to connect various sites of Buddhist and Jain religious interests. Other than central assistance, there is also a plan to develop a road connecting Gangua nullah (through its right embankment) to the historical Kapileswar village. Another road will link Ganesh Ghat near Dhauli Peace Pagoda with the Jatni Kapilaprasad Road.

According to the pre-feasibility report, the state government will spend more than Rs 30 crore on the two proposed roads.

“These two roads will connect Dhauli with Khandagiri and the travellers and tour operators need not take the longer Cuttack-Puri Road via Rasulgarh to reach the historical Jain sites. Even nature lovers visiting places such as Deras in Chandaka or Nandankanan Zoological Park can take this road in future,’’ said the MLA.

“The state government has also asked the Bhubaneswar Development Authority to construct an amphitheatre opposite Madhusudan Park in Pokhariput. This will resemble the amphitheatre at the Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya near Rabindra Mandap,’’ he said.

Sources at the public works department said: “There is a plan to construct a flyover over the railway level crossing at Pokhariput for Rs 42 crore. While the state government will share Rs 22 crore, the rest will come from the railways. Once the flyover is commissioned, the road from Dhauli to Khandagiri will become a vital link to various religious centre.’’

Under the mega tourism circuit, temples such as Lingaraj, Rajarani, Mukteswar, Rameswar, Parsurameswar, Lakshmaneswar, Bharateswar and Satrughneswar will be illuminated with light emitting diode based ‘dynamic lighting system’ for which Rs 3.98 crore will be utilised. The project will be executed by the Orissa Tourism Development Corporation.

Hinting at the development of two interpretation centres near the Lingaraj temple, Samal said: “While one will be constructed on the premises of Sibatirtha Mutt, the other one will come up near the employees’ colony.’’

On the proposed tourist interpretation centre near Khandagiri-Udaygiri caves, he said the project would be completed within two or three months time.

Following is from a report in Business Standard.

The Orissa government has decided to promote heritage tourism at eight locations along the coast line with an investment of Rs 7.41 crore in the next five years.

Based on archeological, architectural, sculptural and historical importance, the selected structures, identified by the state archeology department, would be taken up under the World Bank funded Rs 227.64-crore Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project.

… The structures identified to get a face lift under the scheme included Potagarh (Buried Fort), located on the bank of river Rushikulya in Ganjam town which stands as a mute witness to the vicissitudes of history in Orissa.

Apart from historic Potagarh, the British Cemetery near Ganjam town, Bhaba Kundaleswar temple of Manikapatna, Baliharichandi temple near Puri, Hariharadeva temple, Nairi, Bateswara temple, Kantiagada (Ganjam), Jagannath temple, Pentha and Jamboo Colonial Building, Kendrapara will be refurbished under the scheme.

Preservation of ancient monuments under the project will include their protection, structural conservation, chemical conservation, landscaping and maintainance from time to time.

… The officials of the Gujarat and West Bengal projects along with a World Bank team visited various places including Ganjam and Kendrapada districts in the state recently to review the implementation of the project. Project Director of ICZM (Orissa) AK Pattnaik briefed the team about various steps taken under the project and their progress. The scheme, whose tenure spans from 2010 to 2015, is being implemented in two coastal stretches: Paradeep to Dhamara and Gopalpur to Chilika.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

The state government is planning to set up a port-based cluster of wood-based industries in Paradip on the Kandla model. The hub will manufacture wooden products with imported timber and market them within and outside the country.

“The entrepreneurs will set up their units with their own funds. We will facilitate the project by providing land and other infrastructure. The state run Industrial Development Corporation has earmarked 100 acres of land for the purpose,” said industries minister Raghunath Mohanty.

“The beauty of the project is that the wood-based units will use timber imported from South Africa, New Zealand and West Indies. The proposal is on the lines of Kandla project in Gujarat where several wood-based industries are operating. The entire raw material is imported from outside,” said forest and environment minister Debi Prasad Mishra.