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Baazar Kolkata has already opened and is in the process of opening stores in various Orissa locations: 2 in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, Berhampur. Following is a news item on this in Samaja. (Note: Baazar Kolkata is different from the Big Bazar Chain.)

The ECOR time table is at http://eastcoastrailway.gov.in/File/ECoR_Time_Table.pdf. As of today the time table there is the one from 1st Dec 2006 – 30th Jun 2007.

(See http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/?p=96 for other expansion plans of Paradeep port.)

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

The State Government will open 159 more tehsils in a bid to take administration to the doorstep of the people.

This was decided at a high-level meeting presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The new tehsils will be opened in a phased manner over the next three years.

… Revenue Minister Manmohan Samal said 45 additional tehsils will be upgraded to full-fledged ones within the current fiscal while three new ones will be opened in each of the revenue divisions.

This will cost an additional Rs 1 cr to the State ex-chequer for opening a new tehsil. While 60 new tehsils will be opened in the first phase, 50 and 49 new ones will come up in the second and third phase.

Samal said more than one tehsils will be opened in urban areas having heavy population. The number of tehsils in the State will increase to 330 with the new additions.

The Chief Minister advised the officials to expedite the selection of employees and location of infrastructure for office purposes for the new tehsils.

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

The Tourism Department plans to make the place more vibrant and lively.

To begin with, it has already handed over a patch of land � measuring about 22 acres � adjoining the temple to Archaeological Survey of India for landscaping.

Work has already begun on the project. The Indian Cultural Trust Fund under Indian Oil Corporation has already committed Rs 22 crore for peripheral development.

The Department is also planning to shift the approach road and widen it. Plans are afoot to redo several landmarks in the town.

… ASI has also been requested to reopen its museum during the Konark Dance Festival starting Saturday and keep it open during the night.

Similarly, the Chandrabhaga beach is being made more attractive with the establishment of an eco camp.

It would house 20 luxury camps. The State Government would fund Rs 5 crore for the venture and development of the beach.

The four-day festival, would see a number of eminent artistes from Orissa and outside perform. They include Madhavi Mudgal and her troupe from New Delhi.

… over the years there has been a steady rise in the number of tourists visiting Konark to exclusively witness the festival.

In 2006, as many as 8,090 domestic and 473 foreign tourists attended it. In 2005, about 7,860 domestic and 452 foreign tourists had witnessed the festival.

Since shipyards employ a lot of people, Orissa should pursue some more shipyards. The following article in Samaja mentions some shipyard companies in India.

Following is an excerpt from the PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=33463.

Under the National Programme for promoting conservation of medicinal plants and traditional knowledge, the facilitating agencies at the local level involved in preparation and updating such a register include:

(i)                   Swami Ramananda Tirtha Regional Institute, Hyderabad, Andhra      

            Pradesh

(ii)         Rural Communes, Mumbai, Maharashtra

(iii)        SAMBANDH, Bhubaneswar, Orissa

(iv)        Jagran Jan Vikas Samithi, Udaipur, Rajasthan

(v)         Tagore Society for Rural Development, Kolkata, West Bengal

The following is from the PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=33421. (Based on this Orissa will fall behind quite a bit: Only 2000kms of new lines
 none of the major new lines in Orissa, such as Khurda-Balangir, will get completed during the 11th plan. The states where the freight corridor will run and the states with a lot of narrow gauge lines will surge forward.)

In order to carry additional freight and passenger traffic in future, Railways have on hand 272 track capacity works, which on completion would add 20,852 kilometers to the Broad Gauge system.  The estimated throwforward cost of these works is approximately Rs. 55,000 crore.

A substantial amount of traffic moves on the High density routes viz. the ones which connect the four metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkatta, and the Delhi – Gaulhati route.  Railways have already announced construction of two Dedicated Freight Corridors between JNPT-Tughlakabad (1483 kms) and Sonenagar-Ludhiana, (to be later extended to the deep sea port of Kolkatta) (1279 kms) at a cost of more than Rs. 28,000 crores to give relief to two of the densely saturated routes viz. Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata routes.  In addition, feasibility studies have been ordered on four other corridors – (i) North – South (Delhi-Chennai); (ii) East – West (Mumbair – Kolkotta); (iii) South – East (Vijayawada – Kharagpur ) and (iv) South – South (Chennai – Goa).

In addition, Railway proposes to augment its track capacity in XI Plan by 15,500 kilometers, including 2000 kilometer of new lines, 3500 kilometers of doubling and 10,000 kilometers of gauge conversion.

The revenue earning freight traffic in the XI Five Year Plan period is expected to increase from 728 million tonnes in 2006-07 to 1100 million tonnes in 2011-12.  The corresponding freight output is expected to increase from 475 billion ton kilometers in 2006-07 (prov.) to 707 billion ton kilometers in 2011-12.  In order to cater to the projected freight traffic, it is expected that 62000 wagons would be required during the XI Plan.  Railways will also require to induct 1800 electric and 1800 diesel locomotives for carrying the projected traffic in the XI plan.  In addition to enhance the capacity of the existing diesel and electric locomotive manufacturing units, Railways are also going in for setting up a diesel locomotive factory at Marhowra and electric loco factory at Madhepura which will produce 150 and 120 locos per year respectively.

Since capacity augmentation takes time, Railways have taken immediate steps to enhance the throughput by increasing the carrying capacity of wagons by 6 tonnes on most of the routes and by 8 tonnes on selected routes and also strengthen the track, bridges and allied structures.  In addition, 28 heavy mineral routes with over 6900 route kilometers have been further identified for implementation of 25 tonne Axle load.  Also on selected routes, double stack containers trains have been permitted to further enhance the throughput per train.

Railways also plan to induct wagons of better design, higher capacity, longer life and low on maintenance.

The passenger traffic in the XI Five Year Plan is expected to increase from 6242 million passengers in 2006-07 (RE) to 8400 million in 2011-12.  The correspondence passenger output is expected to increase from 700 billion passenger kilometers to 880 billion passenger kilometers.

In order to cater to this increase in traffic, it is expected that 22500 coaches would be required  during the XI Five Year Plan,  implying a yearly requirement of 4500 coaches.  In order to meet this requirement , the production capacities of the existing units –integral Coach Factory, Prembur  and Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthanla – are being enhanced to 1500 and 1400 coaches per annum respectively from the  present capacity of 1000 coaches per annum each.  Further, a new coach factory is also being planned to be set up at Rai Bareily to bridge the shortfall in requirement and production capacities.

Railways have constructed a total of 4084 kilometers of track in the last three years.  The details are as under :–

This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri R.Velu in written reply to a question in the Lok  Sabha today.

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

Giving safety and passenger comfort the utmost priority, the regional office of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has rolled out well-knit packages for pilgrims and holiday-makers for the first time to major tourist places in the country.

… The new packages, however, do not include ghat sections. Nonetheless IRCTC has left no room for complaints. ‘‘We have even posted a manager who would look into the wellbeing of the people round the clock,’’ he said.

The packages include a week-long tour to North covering New Delhi, Jammu, Haridwar and Risikesh. The cost per adult has been fixed at Rs 11,800. Similarly, the ‘explore Rajasthan’ tour package, taking travellers to all known places, has been priced at Rs 17,050. They include expenses like on and off board catering, board and travelling.

Optimum return of the money spent would be the USP of the plans. The third package called ‘ Southern Splendours I and II — covering places like Bangalore, Mysore, Ooty and Hassan among others — would cost between Rs 10,250 and Rs 10,650.

In the ensuing months, IRCTC would also offer travel plans to Madurai , Rameswaram and Kanyakumari. Likewise, tour packages to Darjelling , Gangtok and Peling are also on the cards. It is also contemplating to offer customised packages.

Meanwhile, IRCTC’s budget hotel project in Bhubaneswar would start soon, having received nod from the State Government. It will come up in front of the Railway station. IRCTC has also acquired about five acres at Bhabakundaleswar near Satapada at Chilika Lake for a similar project.

Mohanty said, plans for the budget hotels in Cuttack, Puri and Visakhapatnam are awaiting the Railway Board’s clearance.

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

The State Government will seek Central assistance of Rs 45 crore under the Rastriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) for the current fiscal.

The Centre has introduced the new additional Central assistance scheme to incentivise the State which exceed plan expenditure consecutively in the last three years.

… The committee approved the proposals of the Agriculture Department, which has sought an assistance of Rs 10.10 crore for managing acid soil to boost agriculture production, Rs 8.8 crore for popularisation of farm mechanisation and Rs 2.52 crore for systematic rice intensification in areas having low rice production.

Under the rice intensification programme, field demonstration will be taken up where farmers will be educated on how to get higher yield with less use of seeds, water and fertilisers, official sources said.

The department has asked an assistance of Rs 2 crore for strengthening soil testing service, Rs 1.06 crore for bio-fertiliser application for pulses and oilseeds and Rs 55.55 lakh for promotion of organic farming through vermi hatchery and blue green algae.

It has also proposed to set up seed processing plant in Gajapati, Kendrapara and Jharsuguda districts and modernise the agriculture information wing in the city and at Sambalpur with an investment of Rs 1.80 crore and Rs 1.18 crore respectively.

Since the Centre will provide the additional assistance in two streams, the total estimate for 12 projects in the first stream is Rs 28.83 crore. Seventy-five percent of the additional Central assistance is for programme implementation while the remaining 25 percent is to bridge resource gap in the State plan.

The Government will ask Rs 15.94-crore Central assistance under the stream-II out of which Rs 4 crore will be for strengthening its implement factory at Satyanagar, Rs 2.45 crore for infrastructure development and strengthening the training centres (gram sevak kendras), Rs 7 crore for construction of 17 seed storage godowns and Rs 2 crore for establishment of agro-service centres at gram panchayat level.

Dharitri has a nice article on the golden future of Dhamara. Following are some of the major projects involving Dhamara. My prediction is that in 10-15 years the Chandbali-Dhamara-Bhitarakanika area will be a beautiful metropolitan area  next to a national park. (See top right in this map.)

1. L & T and the Tatas are building a port in Dhamara.
2. Central government is upgrading Dhamara fishing jetty  to an international fishing harbor.
3. Bharati Shipyard and Appejay group plan to build a shipyard in Dhamara.
4. A railway line connecting Dhamara and Bhadrakh will be build.
5. Good roads will definitely connect Dhamara to nearby National Highways.
6. Dhamara will be a major stop in National Waterway 5.
7. Dhamara is next to the Bhitarakanika National Park (more)

Following is an excerpt from a news item in rediff.com.

Keeping to long-standing demands from the Information Technology companies in the small and medium enterprise sector, the inter-ministerial committee of the Centre has approved the first private software technology park of Orissa.

The Bhubaneswar-based JSS Group, operating as a BPO / KPO company in the banking and financial back-end services, has received the distinction. The new private STP has been christened as JSS Software Technology Park.

The private STP is being set up by the JSS Group at Infocity in Chandaka, Bhubaneswar.

… When contacted, chairman of JSS group, Bijoy K Sahoo said, "For long we have been urging for setting up a private STP in the state. Finally it has been awarded to us. We thank the Orissa government for helping us achieve our aim. This would open the flood gates for more private STPs".

Neighbouring states like Andhra Pradesh already have more than 100 private STPs, for the ITSME sector, followed by other states like West Bengal. Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Almost 98 per cent of Orissa IT companies registered with the Software Technology Parks of India belong to the SME sector. The state has set to itself a software export target of achieving Rs 1,000 crore in the next couple of years.

Update: As per Dharitri, the current largest aquarium in the country is in Paradeep which is built in an area of 1.5 acres.

Following is an excerpt from a news item on this in the Statesman.

The holy city of Puri will soon have a modern sea-aquarium, with an approximate investment of Rs 2 crore.

Complying with the request of the Speaker Mr Maheswar Mohanty, who happens to be the local MLA, chief minister Mr Naveen Patnaik has asked the tourism department to take necessary steps. It is said that the sea-aquarium is going to be the largest in the country.

Presiding over in a high-level meeting, which was attended by tourism minister Debi Prasad Mishra, tourism secretary Asit Tripathy, culture secretary Gopinath Mohanty, Paradip Port Trust (PPT) vice-chairman Subrat Tripathy and Puri collector Rashmi Ranjan Patnaik, Speaker Mr. Mohanty informed that the technical support for the project will be provided by PPT. This will be a major tourist attraction, he hoped.

Following is an excerpt from a news report in Livemint.

Infrastructure company, Lanco Infratech Ltd, … plans to set up its largest power generation capacity unit at Baban, Orissa, in an attempt to meet growing demand for power in an economy that is expanding at more than 9% a year.

The plant will have a capacity of 2,640MW and will require an investment of around Rs11,000 crore, said Lagadapati Madhusudhan Rao, chairman of the Lanco Group. It will have four units of 660MW each. “We are setting up this coal-fired power project in Orissa under a special purpose vehicle (SPV), Lanco Baban Power Plant Ltd,” added Rao.

Of the 2,640MW, 25% will be sold to Orissa and the balance will be sold to other buyers through tenders. The company also plans to keep a certain portion for merchant power, Rao said. Merchant power is the term used by power companies to describe power sold in the spot market (as opposed to that sold through long-term contracts).

The company claims to have lined up nearly 75% of its fuel supply arrangements in the form of captive coal and coal linkages. While coal for 1,000MW capacity would come from Rampia coal blocks, near Baban, which was allotted recently by the government, another 660MW will come from Coal India Ltd (CIL).

“We have applied to the Union ministry of coal for additional coal for the balance power capacity. We are expecting financial closure for the project by early 2009,” said Rao.

Following is from the PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=33328.

In some stretches entrusted to National Highways Authority of India, maintenance of trees is included as a part of ongoing Operation & Maintenance contracts. The details are as under:

(i) NH-8   :           Jaipur  bypass

(ii) NH-79A: Kishangarh – Kanwaliyas-Jajaro Ka Khera section (km. 0 to km. 35) &   NH-79 (km. 15 to km. 163.90).                             

(iii)   NH-76   :    (Udaipur-Chittorgarh (km. 113.825 to km. 220.00).

(iv) NH-5      :       Bhubaneswar-Jagatpur-Chandikhole (km. 0 to km. 61).

Following is an excerpt from a news report in the Statesman.

The Film Society of Bhubaneswar (FSB) is organising Airtel Bhubaneswar Film Festival’07 (BFF’07), which will begin from tomorrow. The five-day event will bring together a selection of contemporary and critically acclaimed films, which would offer meaningful and entertaining exposure to social issues, cultural conventions and artistic excellence from all over the world. In total, 16 highly acclaimed feature films and six documentary  films will be screened.

The most important feature of this film festival is the showcasing of contemporary African and Asian films, whose style and aesthetics have been critically appreciated in various echelons. In the African category, movies from South Africa, West Africa, Angola, Senegal and Morocco would be exhibited. They include films of award winning film-makers like Maria Joa Ganga, Ousmane Sembene, Nabil Ayouch, Abderrahmane Sissako, and Gavin Wood.

In the Asian category, films of Hirokazu Koreeda, Tsai Ming-liang, Bahman Farmanara and Nir Bergman would be screened. Apart from these, path-breaking classics of four great directors-Ugetsu Monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi), Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman), Mouchette (Robert Bresson) and Titas-Ekti Nadir Naam (Ritwik Ghatak) would be shown. Himanshu Khatua’s Sunya Swarupa, in Oriya would also be screened at the event.

See also http://www.orissatourism.gov.in/new/kon_festival.htm. Following are some excerpts:

The annual Konark Festival, which is held in an open air auditorium with the temple as the backdrop, showcases a magical parade of India’s classical and traditional dance forms. Eminent dancers and their troupe delight visitors in the wintry evening of early December with dramatic choreographies.

Besides, the dance performances the visitors will be treated, in an Artist Camp, to an exhibition of Orissan temple sculptures which are often described as poetry transcribed on stone. Sand Art exhibition will be yet another attraction for tourists.

PROGRAMMES
Date	1st Session (6.00 PM – 7.00 PM)	2nd Session (7.00 PM – 8.00 PM)
01-12-07	ODISSI GKCM Odissi Research Centre, Bhubaneswar	KATHAK Bireshwar Gautam, Mumbai
02-12-07	KATHAKALI Dr. Venkit & Troupe, Kerala	ODISSI Kaisiki (Dakshya Mashruwalla & Group), Mumbai
03-12-07	ODISSI Banshi Bilas, Bhubaneswar	BHARATNATYAM Geeta Chandran, New Delhi
04-12-07	MOHINIATTAM Shyamala Sundaran, Kerala	ODISSI Madhavi Mudgal & Group, New Delhi
05-12-07	ODISSI Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalay, Bhubaneswar	MANIPURI Performing Art Centre, Imphal, Manipur

It is a festival of classical dances of India performed at the backdrop of the Sun Temple, Konark.

Konark Festival was organised for the first time in 1989 in the Open Air Auditorium at Konark constructed with the financial assistance of Government of India.

Conceived as a festival of Classical Dances of India, the objective of Konark Festival was to promote Konark as well as Orissa as place of tourist destination.

Initially during the year 1989 and 1990, the festival was being organised for a period of 3 days. Subsequently increased to 7 days during 1991 and 1992 in different dates. Since 1993 the festival is being organised for a period of 5 days from December 1-5 every year. The festival was however not organised during 1999 due to the Super Cyclone.