___________

My position is that the ministry is most welcome to make Vizag an international airport; but it should not deprive Bhubaneswar the same. Since the above article pokes holes on Bhubaneswar’s claims for international designation and explicitly mentions Vizag, hence my following attemp to compare the two in terms of daily non-stop flight connectivity. I used http://www.cleartrip.com and used the dates of 18th and 26th Novmeber. (This is an initial attempt. If I missed something please let me know.)

* The Kingfisher Delhi-Bhubaneswar flights are canceled for now, in November they show twice a day and in some December dates they show once a day. Its exact schedule is at http://www.flykingfisher.com/Flex/schedules.pdf. There it shows the following:

Delhi (DEL) IT 3346 19:30 21:25 320 0 03 Oct 2010 24 Oct 2010 7 Kingfisher Red Service
Delhi (DEL) IT 3346 20:30 22:40 320 0 31 Oct 2010 22 Mar 2011 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 Kingfisher Red Service
Delhi (DEL) IT 3350 09:10 11:20 320 0 31 Oct 2010 22 Mar 2011 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 Kingfisher Red Service

Bhubaneswar (BBI) IT 3345 17:05 19:00 320 0 03 Oct 2010 24 Oct 2010 7 Kingfisher Red Service
Bhubaneswar (BBI) IT 3345 17:45 19:55 320 0 31 Oct 2010 22 Mar 2011 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 Kingfisher Red Service
Bhubaneswar (BBI) IT 3349 06:30 08:40 320 0 31 Oct 2010 22 Mar 2011 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 Kingfisher Red Service

That is it will have twice daily flights between Bhubaneswar and Delhi.

Some other comparative numbers:

• As per http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=55629 average number of flights operated in a day from Bhubaneswar is 50 and from Vizag is 33.
• As per the world-gazetteer the population of the Bhubaneswar metropolitan area is 1,696,807 and the population of the Vizag metropolitan area is 1,534,162. 

On Jharsuguda airport there seems to be a deadlock. It is clear that the center wants 815 acres land and the state is offering only 734 acres.

Why is not the state giving the amount of land the center is asking for? Is there some genuine reason behind it? I don’t know. Perhaps someone who knows can help.

Also is the amount of land that the center is asking an absolute must? Are there other operational airports with less land? (I don’t know.) Ofcourse more land would mean a bigger airport. But is not it possible to use the land the state is giving to make the airport and then pursue the additional land for future expansion.

Update: Just did some search and found that:

• Patna airport covers an area of only 254 acres.
• Varanasi airport covers an area of 582.5 acres.
• Trivandrum airport is a 583 acres campus.
• Tirupati airport: Currently at 293 acres and will grow to 690 acres.
• Dibrugarh airport: 253.96 acres.
• Jaipur airport: 716 acres.
• Tiruchi airport: 702 acres.
• Jammu airport: 88.7 acres. (??)
• Srinagar airport: 52.6 acres. (??)
• Ranchi airport: 526 acres.

Outside India there are some very busy airports that have around 700 acres of land. For example:

• La Guardia Airport in New York is 650 acres. (It is next to a river through.)
  • In 2008, 176,373 flights departed LaGuardia. That makes it an average of 483 flights a day.
• Reagan National Airport in Washington DC is 733 acres. (It is also next to a river.)

Update: He did a wonderful performance in the finals and got 27 points from the judges (9+8+10), but did not win. The winning team got 28 (=9+9+10) points from the judges.

This year there are two (out of 9) finalists from Odisha in India’s Got Talent Khoj (Season 2). [Last year Prince dance group from Berhampur, Odisha was the champion.] One of this year’s finalist is the fabulous sand animation group. Earlier we wrote about them. While they made it to the finals through the wild card round, Harihar Dash from Berhampur made it to the finals directly from his semifinal round for his world class locking and popping dance and it looked like his was the most vote getter from that round. Here are his youtube videos.

Semifinal:

Quarterfinal:

Audtion:

Performance from college days:

Following is from a Business Standard report in sify.com.

Orissa has continued its growth momentum as a favourite destination for investors attracting investments worth Rs 98,929.49 crore in the April-June period of this fiscal. The most of these new investment proposals are in sectors like power, steel, cement, food processing and downstream industries.

The single largest investment proposal of Rs 45,000 crore has come from Strategic Energy Technology Systems Pvt Ltd for a coal to liquid project at Angul on May 12, 2010.

The bulk of the investments- Rs 33,569.25 crore has been proposed in the power sector with proposals for setting up of Independent Power Plants (IPPs) with a cumulative capacity of 7740 MW.

Ferro Alloys Corporation (FACOR) Power Limited has proposed to set up a 270 MW (2×135) coal-based thermal power plant at Haridaspur in Jajpur district. Similarly, KU Projects intends to set up a 1320 MW (2×660) power plant at Thakurpur in Sonepur district at an investment of Rs 7260 crore. This project has been cleared by the High Level Clearance Authority (HLCA) of the state government.

Similarly, Shivani Thermal Power Station of Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh) has proposed to set up a 1320 MW (2×660) power plant at Chhotapadagan in Cuttack district at a cost of Rs 7554.54 crore.

Visa Power has submitted a revised proposal to the state government owned Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Orissa Ltd (Ipicol) to set up a 1320 MW (2×660) power plant at Brahmanabasta in Cuttack district, entailing an investment of Rs 6319.48 crore.

Shri Anant Infra Energy Pvt Limited has evinced interest to set up a 210 MW coal-based power plant at Garjan Bahal in Sundergarh district.

Responsive Industries Ltd has proposed to set up a 1320 MW (2×660) power plant at Manmunda in Boud district at a cost of Rs 6487.50 crore.

CLP Power India Pvt Ltd plans to set up a 1980 (3×660) MW power plant at Majhapada in Sundergarh district at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore.

Among the investment proposals in the cement sector, Kolkata-based Icore Super cement Ltd has proposed to set up a cement plant at Somnathpur in Balasore district at an investment of Rs 151 crore.

While Ramco Industries Limited has evinced interest to set up a 120,000 tonnes per annum asbestos fibre cement sheet plant at Jharsuguda at a cost of Rs 35 crore, Madras Cement intends to set up a 4000 tonne per day cement plant at Nandibera in Malkangiri district at a cost of Rs 750 crore.

Reliance Cementation Ltd has submitted proposal for a 2.8 million tonne per annum cement plant at Jallangbara in Sundergarh district at a cost of Rs 970 crore.

Similarly, Binani Cement plans to set up a one million tonne per annum clinker grinding unit at Dhamara in Bhadrak district at a cost of Rs 130 crore.

In the steel sector, Rashmi Metalliks Limited has proposed to set up a three million tonne per annum pelletisation plant and 44 m captive power plant at Baliarpur in Bhadrak district at an investment of Rs 3465 crore.

The Orissa Minerals Development Company Limited has evinced interest for a two million tonne per annum beneficiation and pelletisation plant at Dalki in Keonjhar district at a cost of Rs 889 .

Following is excerpted from a report in indiainfoline.com.

The statewise breakup of investment under implementation as on June ’10 (Rs. Crores) has been Maharashtra (666065), Orissa (498190), Gujarat (487361), Andhra Pradesh (478612), Tamil Nadu (334960), UP (326356), Haryana (318488), West Bengal (288109), Karnataka (279033), Jharkhand (173008), Chhattisgarh (167557), Madhya Pradesh (165848), Kerala (126223), Punjab (115683), Rajasthan (84955), Bihar (59339), Jammu & Kashmir (44339), Himachal Pradesh (43928), Uttrakhand (38869), Assam (36124).

… The capital goods industry’s performance is mainly on account of spurt in investment activity in Haryana, UP, Kerela, Orissa and Uttarakhand in the first quarter of 2009-10.

… The rate of implementation (% share in total live investments) as per June 2010 in prominent states, has been the most in Haryana (81.5) followed by UP (70.6), Assam (65.9), Maharashtra (61.7), Punjab (60), Andhra Pradesh (58.5), Himachal Pradesh (56), Jammu & Kashmir (53.1), Kerala (51.9), Bihar (50.5), West Bengal (49.4), Tamil Nadu (47.7), Orissa (44.3), Chhattisgarh (40.6), Madhya Pradesh (40.2), whereas states like Uttrakhand (39.1), Gujarat (38.9), Rajasthan (34.7), Karnataka (32.7) and Jharkhand (28.2) are lagging behind in this aspect.

The full article by Bibhuti Barik is at http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100920/jsp/orissa/story_12957764.jsp. Following is the graphic from that article.

Following are reports from Samaja and Dharitri. It says land has been selected in the Choumukh panchayat. The port, which was earlier referred to as Kirtania port, is now referred to as Subarnarekha port. The Samaja article mentions that for the port connectivity there will be a two lane road and rail lines between Haldipada and Choumukh. The Daharitri article mentions the rail points as Rupsa and Jaleswar. Both articles say that if things go as planned the port should be operational by 2014. This port is being made by Creative Ports of Chennai.

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

The Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has reviewed the progress of lower Suktel Irrigation Project in the Orissa Secretariat on Saturday , which is under construction in Balangir and Sonepur district. The Chief Minister instructed the departmental officers to speed up the construction work of the project.

As per the information in the meeting, about Rs 1041.81 crores will be expended for the project and more than 31,830 cultivable land of Balangir and Sonepur district will be irrigated by the project. Out of which 29,850 Hector of Balangir district and 1980 Hector of Sonepur district. The phase II (stage II ) forest permission has been sanctioned . The land acquisition work for the project is going on. It has been decided to complete the land acquisition work by the month of October. Two officers will be engaged for the purpose.

The following PTI report from ibnlive gives addition information on this.

The project having potential of irrigating about 31,830 hectare of land in Balangir (29,850 hectare) and Sonepur (1980 hectare) districts, would have 1230 square km of catchment area. Earthen dam of 1410 meter was required to be built for the project.Of the total 29 villages to be affected, 16 villages to be fully submerged due to the dam prorject. Other 13 villages would be partially affected, they said adding that the state government had decided to rehabilitate the people according to the norms of the state government’s Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) policy-2006.To rehabilitate 1266 families belonging to four villages, rehabilitation colony was being developed while the government had identified two other places to settle others, they said. In Bolangir-Sonepur districts, irrigation potential is only three per cent which is lowest in the world, official sources said adding that there was no major irrigation project in Balangir.As Balangir receives scanty rainfall, the district faces acute drinking water problem besides water to the agricultural land.

Following is from a report in Orissadiary.

The 6-million tonne Essar Steel pellet plant here will be made operational by October this year. The `2,200-crore project includes an 8-MT ore beneficiation plant at Joda and Barbil and a 250-km slurry pipeline from Joda to Paradip. The company plans to expand the beneficiation and pellet manufacturing capacities to 12 MT in the future.

Initially, the company will source iron ore from private mines at Joda and Barbil. However, the company expects that the State and Central Governments will grant it lease for a captive mine in the long run.

The pellets to be produced at Paradip would be exported through the Paradip Port to Essar’s steelmaking unit at Hazira in Gujarat, which is undergoing a capacity expansion to 9.6 MT from 4.6 MT by 2012, said sources.

Following is excerpts from an interview in Business Standard. The investment numbers mentioned there does not quite gel with the numbers mentioned above.

Is there a time frame for realising the long-term vision?

It arises from the commitments, as well as MoUs (memorandums of understanding) with various state govts. These are linked to raw material. It’s a chicken and egg story. You need the raw material, otherwise you are not going to invest. We have our plans in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh. In Orissa, we are already completing the first phase. In Karnataka, we have signed the MoU and the government is looking to provide land. But we also want the mines. We don’t want to create a situation where all the investments are done and then you say the mines are not available.

The Orissa government has a clause in the MoU that the state will recommend mines once you have made commitments for 25-30 per cent.

Yes, commitments have to be made, which implies it could be orders. But a 12-million tonne plant will cost anything between $12 billion and $15 billion. Thirty per cent of that will be $4.5 bn. How can anyone expend $4.5 bn in the hope that one will get the mines? It’s easier for smaller players.

The following are excerpts from an article by Sreenivas Janyala in Indian Express.

… Polavaram dam, a dream project for the state and a potential flashpoint involving its neighbours, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. The idea of the dam was first floated in the early 1940s but it remained a dream for the state government, an ambitious venture that stayed on election manifestos. So for years, the Godavari flowed almost unharnessed, emptying itself into the Bay of Bengal. It was only when Y S Rajasekhara Reddy took charge in the state that the Polavaram project was revived, as part of his Jalayagnam programme.

The 150-feet-high dam, called the Polavaram Indira Sagar Dam, will create a reservoir spreading over the three districts of West Godavari, East Godavari and Khammam. The tail-end of this reservoir is more than 150 km away, touching Bastar in Chhattisgarh and Malkangiri in Orissa. The dam will harness 170 thousand million cubic feet water (tmcft), through two canals that spread out as arms on either side: the right canal which will take 80 tmcft to river Krishna and the left canal, which will help irrigate 7.2 lakh acres in the north coastal Andhra districts and take 23 tmcft to Visakhapatnam, which faces a perennial water shortage. Work on the dam has not yet begun but the cranes are furiously at work on the left and right canals.

The dam, a Rs 11,000-crore project, will be an earth-cum-rock fill structure as the soil isn’t rocky enough for a concrete dam.

The Polavaram dream

For nearly 60 years, Polavaram remained on paper, dogged by controversies of displacement. Now, the state’s neighbours, Orissa and Chhattisgarh, have dragged it to the Supreme Court, saying the dam would inundate several parts of their states. According to government estimates, the dam will submerge villages in the three Andhra districts of West Godavari, East Godavari and Khammam, in Bastar in Chhattisgarh and in Malkangiri, Orissa. Besides, nearly two lakh people will be displaced.

But in a state that’s divided over the Telangana issue, the dam has brought together all political parties, including Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam and Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP. With the Environment Ministry having cleared the project on September 5, the government is in a hurry to start work.

“This is an ambitious project that will solve the irrigation and drinking water problems over a large area. Our relief and rehabilitation package is the best in the country.

… the state government says it wants to finish the project in four years. In its zeal to take the project ahead, the state government has given some lofty assurances to the Centre, including the construction of a 60-km-long, 45-feet-high embankment to prevent flooding in neighbouring states.

The concerns

Like all big dams, Polavaram is dogged by the dam versus displacement problem. Chhattisgarh and Orissa, the two states that are opposed to the dam, say the project will submerge large tracts of tribal and forest land and displace primitive tribals who are dependent on the forests. Both states say that if the project has to go ahead, it has to be redesigned and fresh assessments and estimates made. Both states have also rejected the Andhra Pradesh government’s proposal to construct a 30-km-long embankment at the reservoir’s tail-end to prevent submergence in those states.

Orissa is also upset that the environment ministry has cleared Polavaram when its own big-ticket projects, like Niyamgiri, weren’t.

Orissa says 10 villages in Motu tehsil, nine of them dominated by Koya tribes, will be submerged in Malkangiri district. “A population of 6,000 is going to be affected, which includes Scheduled Tribes and Primitive Tribes. Andhra proposes to build an embankment to prevent these 10 villages from getting submerged. But that is unrealistic. The embankment has to be 30 km long and 45 feet high and has to be constructed inside Orissa. Who is going to acquire land to build this wall? What is the environmental impact? Has any assessment been done? A bigger question is, if an embankment is built, where will rain and flood water go from Orissa’s side? It will end up flooding 100 other villages in Malkangiri,” says Suresh Chandra Mahapatra, Commissioner and Secretary, Water Resources Department, Orissa.

In Konta tehsil of Bastar in Chhattisgarh, 23 villages will be submerged. Bastar Commissioner B Srinivasulu too calls the embankment “a far-fetched idea”.

While there is no political opposition to the dam in Andhra Pradesh, environmentalists and human rights activists are opposed to it, saying it will displace more people than the Sardar Sarovar Project on the Narmada river.

In Andhra, 277 villages in Khammam, East Godavari and West Godavari districts, parts of the Papikonda hills and wildlife sanctuary and 3,000 acres of forest land will go down under. The activists say the livelihood of thousands of Godavari fishermen is at stake and the primitive Koya and Kondareddi tribes in Khammam district would be displaced.

… There are other worries too. The Central Water Commission had approved the design based on initial estimates that the spillway (the structure that provides the controlled release of excess water) could withstand 36 lakh cusecs of flood discharge. It was later revised to 50 lakh cusecs. But recent rainfall trends and flood history predict a peak flood of 80 to 90 lakh cusecs and that could wash the dam away, says T Hanumantha Rao, former chief engineer and UN consultant.

Rao says he is not against the Polavaram project but warns against the flooding. “Andhra needs a project like Polavaram. But large earthen dams are prone to breaches. If the dam overflows, it will cause breaches. Polavaram is located at the end of the river where the peak discharge of the river occurs. Only four other rivers in the world have flood peaks more than Godavari and none of them have earthen dams where such peak flood flows occur,” he says.

Last year, two earthen dams in Andhra developed breaches during the monsoons—Gundlavavu in Warangal and Palamvavu in Khammam district.

Then, there is the debate over the height of the dam. While Orissa and Chhattisgarh are objecting to the proposed 150-feet-high dam, Andhra says the purpose of the dam is defeated if it is anything less.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

Under the proposed SEZ Policy, the state government shall not encourage SEZs based on mining and minerals like iron ore, chrome ore and bauxite. However, SEZs based on the use of intermediate products like alumina for smelting, primary metals for further processing on the value chain and rare minerals like tin, limenite, nickel, platinum and vanadium will be allowed.

Moreover, the state shall not encourage SEZs based on activities like mining that cause pollution. The Orissa State Pollution Control Board shall prepare a list of such industries and the same would be notified by the state government as a negative list.

The mineral based SEZs already approved shall undertake to develop and promote related downstream industrial complexes over a minimum area as prescribed by the Government of India. In the event of non-compliance of this condition, all state concessions shall be withdrawn.

The State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) shall be the competent authority to screen and recommend SEZ proposals irrespective of the magnitude of investment.

All recommendations of SLSWCA would be placed before the High Level Clearance Authority for approval before making any recommendation to the Government of India.

The state government owned Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Orissa Limited (Ipicol) would function as the state level nodal agency for receipt, scrutiny and placement of the applications before the SLSWCA.

For sector specific projects, the respective nodal agencies like the Orissa Computer Application Centre (OCAC), Industrial Infrastructure Corporation of Orissa Limited (Idco) and Agricultural Promotion and Investment Corporation of Orissa Limited (Apicol) will receive and scrutinize the applications.

As per the SEZ Policy of the state, the import of goods and services made to SEZ units located within the processing zone from the Domestic Tariff Area shall be exempted from Value Added Tax (VAT), entry tax, electricity duty and other cess payable on sales and transactions.

The SEZ Policy of the state has not envisaged any special provisions for backward districts like Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput and tribal dominated areas.

Till now, four SEZs have been notified in the state– the sector specific IT/ITes SEZ at Chandaka Industrial Estate in Bhubaneswar developed by Idco, sector specific SEZ for stainless steel and ancillary downstream industries at the Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex being developed by JSL, aluminium and aluminium products SEZ at Lapanga near Sambalpur being developed by Hindalco Industries and another aluminium SEZ with Captive Power Plant being developed by Vedanta Aluminium Limited at Jharsuguda.

Some of the other Orissa related SEZs plans and approvals that are not mentioned in the above article are (see also http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/1305):

• Recent approval of IT/ITES SEZ of Suryo Infra. in Bhubaneswar.
• Approval of Solar SEZ by Lanco Solar in Ramdaspur Cuttack.
• Proposal by Geetanjali gems and minerals.
• Work has started for theTATA SEZ in Gopalpur.
• POSCO SEZ in Paradip (Dec 2009: asked to file fresh proposal).
• Saraf Agencies SEZ for Titanium in Chhatrapur (Saraf pulls out; Odisha asks Russian company to speed-up; perhaps no longer an SEZ.)
• Wellspun garments SEZ in Choudwar: 200 acres (??)

Following are extracted from his article in Economic Times.

• The port town in Jagatsinghpur district, about 120 km from the state capital of Bhubaneswar, has already emerged as one of the country’s major investment hotspots by attracting investment in excess of Rs 3.5 lakh crore including the Rs 2, 74,134 crore Petroleum Chemicals and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR) and the biggest FDI proposal by Posco to build a 12-million ton steel plant at an estimated cost of Rs 51, 000 crore.
• The port town already boasts of major fertilizer manufacturers like IFFCO and Paradeep Phosphates Limited, a brewery along with central depot of Indian Oil and other small industries like Kargil Oil, Paradeep Carbon and a host of other units.
• … an integrated Petroleum, Chemicals, and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR), a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) promoted by the state government on the lines of Pudong in China, Rotterdam in Europe and Houston in North America.
• IOC is already coming up with 15 MMTPA grassroot refinery cum petrochemical complex five kilometer to the south of Paradeep Port at an estimated cost of Rs 25,646. For this, the state government has given incentives to IOC by exempting entry tax on crude oil and sales tax deferment for 11 years. The IOC already has got the required 3344 acres of land.
• The Railways is also committed to boost connectivity in the Paradeep region which includes the 82-km Paradeep-Haridaspur broad gauge line, being taken up at an investment of Rs 577.78 crore. East Coast Railway (ECoR) has acquired 1,146 acres of private land out of the total of 1,653 acres of land required for the project. This project being implemented by Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) is scheduled for completion by March 2011.
• The other projects in different stages of implementation Hydrate Pellets Ltd’s six lakh tone hydrate pelts plant at Rs 10,724 crore, Essar Steel Orissa Ltd’s six million ton steel plant at Rs 10,721 cr], Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd. (DFPCL’s three lakh mtpa green-field complex for Nitric Acid and Ammonium Nitrate at Paradeep at a cost of Rs 400 crore NSL Sugar Ltd’s sugar plant at Rs 800 crore and other mini projects.
  

One other thing that is not elaborated in the article is that as part of the PCPIR several things will be funded by the state government and several other things will be funded by the central government.The following is excerpted from an older article in Business Standard.

• “The Centre would provide this money in two phases. While Rs388 crore would come in the first phase of the project, the balance Rs328 crore would be provided by the Government of India in the second phase”
• … six-laning of NH-5 (A), building a greenfield coastal corridor, construction of all-new greenfield road from Bhubaneswar to Paradip and upgradation of port infrastructure.

• The six-laning of the NH-5 (A) will be taken up in the second phase of the PCPIR project at a cost of Rs76 crore. The greenfield coastal corridor will involve an expenditure of Rs410 crore out of which Rs 264 will be invested in the first phase while the remaining expenditure of Rs146 crore will be incurred in Phase-II.

• The construction of all-new greenfield road from Bhubaneswar to Paradip will be taken up at a cost of Rs190 crore while Rs40 crore would be provided by the Centre for upgradation of port infrastructure.

• Meanwhile, the Orissa government has committed an expenditure of Rs1796 crore on infrastructure development for the PCPIR hub. Out of the envisaged expenditure of Rs1796 crore, Rs 754 crore will be spent on development of arterial roads, Rs 465 crore on water supply, Rs 410 crore on power distribution and Rs136 crore on canal upgradation.

To match these industrial investments in Paradip, the Odisha government needs to make plans for a university, an engineering college and a medical college for this area. Similar plans need to made for the other upcoming industrial hubs at Angul,  Kalinganagar, Jharsuguda and Rayagada; as well as the only existing industrial area of Rourkela which neither has a medical college nor has a regular university.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

Peerless Hotels is looking for land to set up four-star facilities in Bhubaneswar, Noida and Navi Mumbai, according to a senior official of the company.

“Our negotiations with the Orissa government for the Bhubaneswar project are at an advanced stage, and if we get the land that we have chosen, the construction of the 80-room hotel will start in another one year,” Peerless Hotels chief executive officer Kunal Sen said.

… “The setting up of a four-star hotel with 80-100 rooms entails an investment of between Rs 75 crore and Rs 95 crore, including land cost that may be between Rs 15 crore and Rs 35 crore depending on location,” Sen said.

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

Paradip Port Trust is planning to have an airstrip within the port premises to facilitate movement to and from the port.

A resolution in this regard was recently passed by the board of trustees of the port. Mr Biplav Kumar chairman of PPT told Business Line that "We’ve also received in-principle consent of the Shipping Ministry.”

… The land for the proposed airstrip, as the port Chairman informed, has been identified.

Since the PCPIR in Paradip has been approved, I expect this airstrip will be established soon.

Vithal Kamats has opened three restaurants in Odisha in Puri, Cuttack and Dhauli (outskirts of Bhubaneswar). Several others are in the pipeline.

The one in Dhauli has the following whereabouts:

Location Address	:	Dhauli , Near Uttra Chowk
Contact No./Email Id	:	0909009351 / dhauli@vithalkamats.com
Unit Manager Name	:	Mr. Srinivas Dalai
Seating capacity	:	Non Ac-60
Meal Price	:	160 INR for 02 persons
Cuisine Served	:	North Indian, South Indian & snacks
Other Facility offered	:	Huge parking, clean toilets for ladies & gents, Open from 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM

The one in Cuttack has the following details:

The 1,000 sq.ft restaurant at Buxi Bazar can seat 50-60 people and offers dosas, idlis, dahi vada, vada pav and the usual South and North Indian delicacies. 

The one in Puri is at Mahodadhi.

Besides these new ones are scheduled to come up in Konark, Bhubaneswar and Satpada (Chilika).

Hyderabad House has outlets in XIMB sqaure and Surya Nagar Bhubaneswar. New ones are coming up in Cuttack and Bapjui Nagar, Bhubaneswar.

Dalma, restaurant with Odia cuisine started from Bhubaneswar. It now has spread its wings to Bangalore and this month it is supposed to open a branch in Rourkela. The address of its locations are:

DALMA – Bhubaneswar

157, Madhusudan Nagar

Sachivalaya marg

Unit-IV

Bhubaneswar-751001



DALMA – Bhubaneswar

Maruti Mall

KIIT Square

Chandrasekharpur

Bhubaneswar-751016





DALMA – Bangalore

37, 6th Block,

100ft Road, Kormangala,

Bengaluru.

Phone- 080-41660921.





DALMA – Rourkela 

Shivani Complex 

Panposh Main Road 

Near Mayfair Hotel 

Rourkela (To open in September 2010)

Its Bangalore location is getting rave reviews from Bangaloreans. See the reviews at http://food.sify.com/articles/Dalma-235061 and http://www.bangaloresrestaurants.com/2010/07/weekend-raid-4-dalma.html. Following is an excerpt from the later:

Dalma is an Odissa cuisine restaurant and part of a chain that is quite famous in Bhuvaneshwar. Its been open a relatively short time but has become a phenomenon of sorts. Come a little after 12.45 pm and you will end up waiting for place. The food is homely.

… The meal was brilliant …

Hope Dalma succeeds further and has locations all over India. Also, hope other Odia entrepreneurs come up with other concepts and spread it across India. Any thoughts on what those concepts could be?

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik …

He was laying the foundation-stone for Mahatma Gandhi Medicinal Plants Park over 595 acres of land at Sogar under Kamakhyanagar block in Dhenkanal district. He said Sogar would be an addition to the existing medicinal parks at Similipal and Gandhamardan. His Government is giving much stress on green revolution, he said.

Dhenkanal DFO Sunil Dalei said the project cost of the medicinal plants park at Sogar is `11.42 crore. The lands involved in the project consist of 442.84 acres of forestland and 152.16 acres of revenue land.

Following is from the PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=65819.

The Board of Approval of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) met here today to 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 363 have been notified. …

In this meeting, the Board recommended grant of Ten Formal Approvals and one In-Principal Approval.

· Formal Approvals:

… IT/ITES – M/s. Suryo Infra Projects Private Limited, Mouza – Tulasideipur, Chandaka, Bhubaneswar, Orissa.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph by Bibhuti Barik:

A tourist interpretation centre is under construction near the Khandagiri-Udayagiri caves, to showcase the tourism potential of the golden triangle, which includes Konark, Puri, Bhubaneswar and other tourist places around the capital.

The centre will have a crafts village, a food court with an array of Orissa cuisine, a public convenience centre, a souvenir centre, an entertainment centre with audio-visual facility, and a parking space.

It will serve as a cultural hub and help the tourists to get information on the tourist spots of the state.

… “The interpretation centre, which will be ready within three months, will help to attract tourists to the site. In future, it will also serve as a one-stop shop for tourists visiting Orissa. The centre, which is under construction near the Khandagiri-Udayagiri caves, will be like the other state tourist interpretation centers in Rajasthan, Haryana or Delhi,’’ the tourism director added.

… Anil Tripathy, executive engineer of the Orissa Tourism Development Corporation Limited (OTDC), who is in charge of the construction of the centre, said “the parking space will help in accommodating 50 buses at a time and the open-air theatre will have seating arrangements for 300 people. There will also be six halls for use on occasions.’’

“The 5,000 square metre built up area of the centre can also be used to organise cultural events like Kharavela Mahotsav, the annual extravaganza near the Khandagiri-Udayagiri caves. The inner and outer circles of the structure with wide balconies have beautiful sandstone pillars that have been built by artisans at the site. The walls of the centre are also made of matching water-proof laterite stones,’’ Tripathy added.

The tourist interpretation centre, which is estimated at a budget of Rs 61.83 lakh, is part of a Rs 296.03 lakh central government project for the development of Khandagiri and Udayagiri caves.

Following is  from a report in Telegraph.

Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL), which is setting up a six million-tonne steel plant here, has proposed to the state government to set up an industrial park at Parang.

… “The park, with an investment of Rs 5,500 crore, will provide employment to about 30,000 people, directly and indirectly, and would go a long way for economic empowerment of the state,” he said, adding that the park was also likely to generate about Rs 636 crore revenue for the state.

“For our steel plant, we require a lot of finished materials such as by-products, semi-products, fabrication units, etc. These could be available from the facilities at the proposed industrial park,” he added.

According to project report, JSPL would spend Rs 500 crore while the remaining Rs 5,000 crore would be raised from the parties who would set up the park. JSPL would provide all sorts of infrastructural facilities including water and power to the units at the park. The site selection has been completed and a pre-feasibility report has been prepared and submitted to the Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation Limited (PICOL) by the company in May. The company requires 1,381 acres of land at Parang for the park. Water will be sourced from the Mahanadi river situated at a distance of 65km from the site.

The project report also said that there would be 250 units of 42 different varieties at the park. Inside the industrial park would be a knowledge park where two colleges — National Training Institute and Industrial Training Institute — would be set up.

Following is from a report in http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/HeadlineNews/Metals/7176480/.

India’s Hindalco Industries expects to start up its new alumina refinery in the state of Orissa in September 2011, with commercial sales to begin from December, company sources said Tuesday.

Construction on the 1.5 million mt/year refinery began in 2007, and is about 50% done. Based at Rayagada, it will be managed by wholly owned subsidiary Utkal Alumina International Ltd, which is also establishing two bauxite mines at Rayagada and Kalahandi that are also slated to start up next September. The refinery and mines are about 20 km apart and will be linked by a conveyor belt.

Hindalco will eventually use most of the refinery’s alumina for its own production of aluminum, but there will be surplus output for sale, initially 780,000 mt/year, then dropping to 60,000 mt/year around July 2012 when the second of the group’s two new smelters come online.

The firm has a 360,000 mt/year smelter in the state of Madhya Pradesh that is to be completed in July 2011, followed by another unit of a similar size in Orissa a year later.

In addition, plans are underway to double the alumina refining capacity in Orissa to 3 million mt/year by 2014, by which time Hindalco is expected to sell about 50% of the new output.

The alumina expansion will be complemented with further aluminum capacity increases although details have not been announced. The group is also planning to raise its bauxite output at Orissa by 4 million mt/year to 8.5 million mt/year along with the refinery expansion.

Following is from a report in Business Standard.

The food processing sector is gradually gaining momentum in the state. After a string of investment proposals from biggies in the sector like Britannia, ITC, Parle Agro Indo Nissin and Future Foods, another behemoth in the packaged food industry-Nestle has evinced interest in setting up a state-of-the-art food processing unit in the state at an investment of around Rs 500 crore.

The food processing facility of Nestle would be spread over 50 acres and the Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa Ltd (Idco) has already identified land for the purpose between Bhubaneswar and Khurda, an official source told Business Standard.

Nestle India’s Orissa facility will manufacture the entire gamut of the company’s products including milk products, beverages, chocolates and confectionery.

… Among the other big players in the food processing sector- Parle Agro’s unit has been cleared by the State Level Single Window Clearance Authority while the site selection is underway for the proposed project of Indo Nissin Foods, the noodles maker.

ITC has so far remained non-responsive after initially evincing interest to invest in the food processing sector.

Following is from http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100913/jsp/orissa/story_12924189.jsp.

Following is from http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100913/jsp/orissa/story_12929859.jsp.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Economic Times.

Lanco Infratech said on Thursday that it has arranged Rs 5,544 crore from a consortium of banks led by ICICI Bank for its 1,320 MW thermal power project at Babandh in Orissa.

Lanco Infratech’s group company Lanco Babandh Power Ltd has achieved the financial closure of the 1,320 MW coal-based power project, the company informed the stock markets today.

The project estimated to cost Rs 6,930 crore, would be financed with a debt of Rs 5,544 crore and an equity of Rs 1,386 crore.

A consortium of fourteen banks and financial institutions with ICICI Bank in the lead are providing the debt required for the project, it said.