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Following is an excerpt from a report in Financial Express.

The proposed port town of Dhamra in Bhadrak district and the coastal village of Astaranga in Orissa are going to get two ultra mega power projects (UMPPs). The Centre, which has awarded two more UMPPs to the state besides the one at Sundergarh, is zeroing in on these two sites for the proposed projects.

A high-level team of experts and officials from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and Power Finance Corporation (PFC) identified the two sites after examining five possible sites located near the coast in the state. The five sites are Kirtaniya (on the mouth of the Subernarekha river) in Balasore district, Dhamra in Bhadrak, Paradip in Jagatsinghpur, Astaranga in Puri and Ganja in Ganjam district.

…  The CVR Navayuga Group has signed an MoU with the Orissa government to set up a 60 million tonne cargo handling capacity port at Astaranga with an investment of Rs 6,000 crore in three phases. The Hyderabad based company is also proposing to set up a 2×660 mw coal-fired thermal power plant and a 12 million tonne steel plant near the port.  

A state government official said DPCL and the Navayuga Group has no objection to the UMPPs coming up near their ports. The two UMPPs with 4000 mw capacity each will be developed through special purpose vehicles promoted by the Power Finance Corporation (PFC) with a proposed investment of Rs 32,000 crore.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

The state-level single-window clearance committee, headed by the chief secretary, today cleared proposals to set up industrial projects drawing a total investment of Rs 2,037 crore.

With the decision, decks have been cleared for signing MoUs by promoters concerned with the state government, sources said.

The committee also forwarded two more proposals for setting up of two thermal power plants to generate 3,300MW with a total investment of Rs 14,275 crore to the high-level clearance authority, headed by the chief minister.

…  While JR Power Gen has proposed to set up a 1,980MW thermal power plant at an estimated cost of Rs 7,988 crore at Kishore Nagar near Angul, BGR Energy has submitted proposals for establishment of a 1,320MW power plant with an investment of Rs 6,287 crore in Nayagarh district.

… the committee gave its final nod to Hindalco’s proposal for setting up an aluminium re-rolling plant with a capacity of 2.85 lakh tonnes at Hirakud in Sambalpur district with an investment of Rs 850 crore.

The proposal of Rashmi Cement Limited to establish a 2 lakh tonnes ferro manganese plant at Haridaspur in Jajpur district with an estimated cost of Rs 300 crore and Dhananjay Industries’s 40,000-tonnes ferro alloy plant at Choudwar near Cuttack with an investment of Rs 180 crore were also cleared.

The committee also cleared the proposal of Kaushal Ferro Manganese for establishment of a re-rolling mill with a production capacity of 2 lakh tonnes at Padiabahal in Sundergarh district with an investment of Rs 82 crore.

The last proposal, which got the nod, was submitted by Bhubaneswar Power Limited to set up a 135MW power plant at Anantpur near Athgarh in Cuttack district on joint venture with Tata Steel and Jasper at an estimated cost of Rs 625 crore.

Following are youtube links to their final, semifinal and initial performances.

Final (Dasavatar act):

Semifinal (Flag act):

Initial (Krishna act):

Following items are from http://twitter.com/orissalinks:

• Bhubaneswar development authority (BDA) plans 1st satellite city at Jagasara-Madanpur; taking lessons from NOIDA. http://bit.ly/8xBnc 
• Rungta mines plans Rs 600-cr cement unit in Orissa. Economic Times. http://bit.ly/3kxe0H7.
• Beautiful beaches in and near Talasari, Balsore District, Orissa. A nice article in Telegraph. http://bit.ly/ISbBn.
• Orissa Sands Complex, at Matikhala near Chhatrapur in Orissa is expected to have a captive power plant. http://bit.ly/aglpH .
• Infosys to invest 600 cr for new facilities @ Mangalore, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram, Chandigarh & Bhubaneswar this year. http://bit.ly/WKjtt.
• http://www.odisha1.com has released tools for learning Odia and provides links for Odia Entertenment.
• Excellent resource on Poet Sri Jayadeva of Orissa. http://www.jayadevfoundatio… He wrote Geetagovinda.
• Superior health care at Nandankanan Zoo in Barang near Bhubaneswar, Orissa. http://bit.ly/qVB5h.
• An excellent blog tracking the progress of Berhampur, Orissa by R. P. Tripathy. http://futureberhampur.blogspot.com/.
• ITC plans hotel in Bhubaneswar, Orissa. Already has land. http://bit.ly/HVrz0.
• I&B ministry gives nod to Community Radio Station (CRS) at Konark, Orissa. http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k9/july/july296.php.
• The Orissa govt. plans a ‘bamboo garden’ on 15 acres inside the Patrapara Medicinal Plant garden in Bhubaneswar.
• Toy making from paper pulp empowers tribal women in Orissa http://bit.ly/1afm0K.
• Bhitarkanika in Orissa shortlisted with 3 others to be presented to UNESCO for world heritage status. http://bit.ly/svKqD.
• PIB: Captive breeding centers for Vultures set up at 4 Zoos: Bhopal, Bhubaneswar Orissa, Junagarh and Hyderabad. http://bit.ly/iYPfg.
• Swosti Plaza Bhubaneswar upgrades. Free airport pick up and drop off. Wi-Fi in rooms. Upgraded health club. http://bit.ly/6mUFg. Swosti Plaza Bhubaneswar upgrades to Swosti Premium. http://bit.ly/6mUFg.
• SRPL plans to launch restaurant brands like Oh! Calcutta, Sigree and Machaan in Orissa by March 2010. http://bit.ly/afzPN.
• Orissa has 8 large and 38 medium reservoirs. Work on 16 reservoirs is in progress. Rs 230.4 crore budget for this. http://bit.ly/109dUK.
• Apollo will be commissioning a 350-bed multi-speciality tertiary hospital at Bhubaneswar before September this year. http://bit.ly/wzae2.
• MP Baijayanta Panda has introduced several private bills. A good step. http://164.100.47.132/lobte….
• Orissa yet to submit final proposal on PCPIR in Paradeep? http://bit.ly/p1YiM.
• Rs1462 crore for Orissa to raise tree cover in degraded forest land. http://bit.ly/UPltI Money had accumulated through CAMPA.
• People blindly opposing industrialization of Orissa should read http://www.counterpunch.org… Orissa needs more job ops.
• Orissa has proposed 4 sites for international size shipyards. http://bit.ly/HJ6DA. Those sites are: Astaranga (in Puri), Palur, Gopalpur and Bahuda muhana/Sonepur (all in Ganjam).
• Next yr Rail budget should have the new trains Bhawanipatna-BBS, Gunupur/Parlakhemundi-BBS and the extension of BBS-Baripada to Bangiriposi.
• MP Tathagat Satpathy wants BBS-NDLS non-stop express to go through Talcher-Angul. How will it benefit his constituency Talcher-Angul?

Following is an excerpt from a release by the Resident Commissioner of Orissa:

Shri Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister, Orissa met Shri Anand Sharma, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry at New Delhi and discussed various issues pertaining to development of Industry Clusters and handicrafts in Orissa.

… The Union Minister also agreed to the proposal of the State Government for providing infrastructure support for development of industrial clusters under the Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme (IIUS) of GoI for the clusters located at Balasore (Plastic Products Cluster) at a project cost of Rs 62.50 crore and another at Mancheswar (Engineering Cluster) at a project cost of Rs 61crore. He complimented the State Government for smooth implementation of the Metallurgical Cluster Project in Jajpur (Kalinganagar) which has already been sanctioned for Orissa under the IIUS.

Following is from Samaja:

In the following Business standard reports on progress on the proposed Aluminum park in Angul.

The proposed aluminium park of the public sector National Aluminium Company (Nalco) at Angul in Orissa, which was mired in uncertainty, is finally set to see the light of the day.

The proposed venture will be set up jointly by Nalco and the state owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa (Idco). The two partners are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard soon.

Sources said, Nalco and Idco will have equal stake in the project. …

“All the contentious issues have been resolved and the terms and conditions of the draft MoU have been agreed upon by both the partners. The signing of the MoU is a matter of technical formalities”, a senior official of the state industry department told Business Standard.

Sources said, the MoU will be signed by the end of this month and the chief minister Naveen Patnaik will lay the foundation stone for the project in the first week of September. The proposed park will come up adjacent to the existing smelter plant of Nalco at Angul.

The complex will house various downstream and ancillary aluminium industries. Though it was originally planned to develop the project over 200 acres, it has been decided to acquire 50 to 100 acres more to increase the size of the park. This will take care of the future growth requirement and creation of some social infrastructure.

… Sources said, the cost of developing the land in the park will be borne by Nalco and Idco equally and this will be recovered from the units which will come up in the park. An innovative pricing structure is proposed to be put in place for this.

The aluminium park, once fully developed, is expected to attract investment of Rs 300 to 400 crore. It may be noted, the project passed through uncertainty as the state government was earlier reluctant to join the project as a joint venture partner.

Update: Aug 18, 2009 – As Dilip comments below the train should start its maiden run any day now.

Dilip Mohanty writes the following in an IRFCA posting:

The much awaited Rourkela-Bhubaneswar Express (declared in the current budget in an addition to the 57 new trains) remains a mystery. A leading local daily named "SAMBAD" has reoprted that the train will start within a few weeks and the Railways Authorities at Rourkela have already received an additional time table for this train. It reports that the train will depart Rourkela at morning 05:15 hours and reach Bhubaneswar at 13:15 hours in the afternoon. After a stay of about 30 minutes at Bhubaneswar, it will depart at 13:45 hours and reach Rourkela at 21:45 hours(an expected Superfast). This train is supposed to be operated by South Eastern Railway.

This train will bring up some new convenient 1-change connections.

• From Bhubaneswar (BBS) to Mumbai: Using this train one can go to Jharsuguda (JSG) and then take Gitanjali that leaves JSG at 21:43. 2860 Gitanjali Express reaches Mumbai CSTM at 21:30 the next day. The total time from BBS to CSTM would be 31 hrs 45 minutes, much less than 1020 Konark which takes 36 hrs 40 mins. The weeklies 2146 and 2880 take 32hrs 15mins and 30hrs 15mins respectively.
• From Mumbai to Bhubaneswar: 2859 Gitanjali leaves CSTM at 6:00 and reaches JSG the next day at 04:25. One can then take the above Rourkela – Bhubaneswar Express to reach Bhubaneswar at 13:15. The total time from CSTM to BBS would be 31hrs and 15 mins.
• From Rourkela to Secunderabad: Using this train one can go from Rourkela to Bhubaneswar and then take Konark to go to Secunderabad. Konark leaves Bhubaneswar at 15:15 and reaches Secunderabad the next day at 11:35. The total time from Rourkela to Secunderabad would be 30hrs 20 mins. (One can take Falaknuma that leaves BBSR at 14:05 instead of Konark; but the connection time would be much less making it risky.)
• From Secunderabad to Rourkela: 2704 Falaknuma leaves Secunderabad at 16:00 and reaches BBS the next day at 10:40. One can then take the BBS-ROU Express to Rourkela to reach ROU at 21:45. The total duartion will be 29 hrs and 45 mins.

(Thanks to Umashankar babu for the tip.)

Following is an excerpt from a report in the Wall Street Journal.

India’s federal government has approved an increase in mining royalties for various minerals including iron ore, copper, zinc and lead, government officials said Wednesday.

Two mining ministry officials, who didn’t want to be named, told Dow Jones Newswires that India’s cabinet committee on economic affairs has approved the proposal for changes in royalties on minerals other than coal, and a formal notification with immediate effect is expected this week.

…  The change in rates will increase states’ annual revenue from royalties to 46.3 billion rupees ($968.6 million) from 22.88 billion rupees.

… The officials said the government will levy a 10% value-added or ad valorem royalty on iron ore mining.

For iron ore miners, the new royalty will mean switching to a tax regime under which they will be charged based on the market value of the minerals compared with the existing system of flat rates based on weight, the officials said.

At present, the government charges a fixed royalty of up to 27 rupees a metric ton on different grades of iron ore.

Iron ore spot prices in the local market may rise by about 10% in the near future, … said Rahul Baldota, …  But he added that iron ore producers in India, the world’s third-largest supplier of the commodity, will absorb the cost for exports in order to remain competitive.

…  India already charges value-added royalty rates for zinc, copper and lead, but the rates charged will now increase.

The government will charge an 8% royalty on zinc ore, up from 6.6% earlier, while the rate on copper will rise to 4.2% from 3.2%. The royalty on lead ore will go up to 7% from 5%.

On bauxite used for other than alumina and aluminum extraction and exports, a royalty of 25% will be charged. For use in alumina and aluminum extraction, the rate will be 0.5%. Previously, no royalties were charged.

Following is an excerpt from the PIB release http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=51774.

The Board of Approval of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) met today consider proposals for setting up of Special Economic Zones and also to approve other miscellaneous requests pertaining to SEZs.

            Addressing the Board of Approval members, the Chairman informed that so far 577 formal approvals have been granted for setting up of SEZs out of which 325 have been notified. He further informed that over Rs.1,16,879 crore have been invested in the Special Economic Zones during this short span of time and direct employment of the order of 4,27,908 persons has been generated in the Special Economic Zones.  During the first quarter of current financial year, total export of Rs.39,411 crore approx. has been made from SEZs.

            In this meeting, 7 proposals for setting up of SEZ were considered.  The Board recommended grant of two formal approvals and one In-Principle Approvals.

·                     Formal Approvals:

Ø                   IT/ITES/BPO/EH – M/s. Brooke Bond Real Estates Private Limited SEZ at Bangalore, Karnataka.

Ø                   EH/ITES – M/s. Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd. at Shimoga, Karnataka.

·                     In-Principle Approval:

Ø                   Solar SEZ – M/s. Lanco Solar Pvt. Ltd. at village Ramdaspur, Cuttak District, Orissa.

 

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