___________

Following is from a PIB.

National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase-IV is at initial stage of planning wherein two laning with paved shoulder of 20,000 km of National Highways is envisaged with an estimated cost of Rs. 27,800 crore. NHDP Phase-IV is targeted to be completed by December, 2015.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Shri K.H. Muniyappa in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

Following is from a PIB release.

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh has approved funding of the Bogibeel Rail-cum Road Bridge and the Rangia–Murkongselek gauge conversion projects at a cost of Rs1980 crores. Additional Budgetary support will be given to the Railways to complete the projects. A detailed milestone map with target dates is to be prepared for these projects with indication of annual requirement of funds.

The Ministry of Railways will set up a dedicated fund for these projects to ensure timely implementation. The cost overruns will be funded by the Railways from internal resources.

The Prime Minister has directed that a uniform funding pattern, on the same lines, be extended to the remaining five-sanctioned National Projects for the North East Region. A dedicated fund called the “ North East Rail Development Fund” will be set up for the timely completion of these projects. The projects will be completed in five years. The Ministry of Railways will submit a proposal for the approval of the Cabinet.

(1) ECOR GM Shri Surendra Singh Khurana in his Independence Day address (available at http://eastcoastrailway.gov.in/custom/press_release/index.php) while talking about ECOR, said:

 “With only 4% of the track of Indian Railways, we cater for about 12% of total loading of Indian railway and about 7% of total earning of IR.”

(2) From http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/irfca/messages

For the 2003-2004 and 2004-05 the working expense as part of gross earnings of the ECOR zone is the second best at 66.64% and 61.75% respectively.

• The profit making zones in those years were
  • South east central (62.8% and 56.1%),
  • ECOR (66.64% and 61.75%),
  • North central (76.33% and 66.71%),
  • Central (80.29% and 82.48%),
  • South eastern (81.24% and 83.51%),
  • South Central (85.72% and 83.62%),
  • West Central (80.99% and 84.08%),
  • South Western (91.35% and 86.15%),
  • Western (93.21% and 90.85%),
  • Northern (91.08% and 92.89%) and
  • East Central (93.65% and 98.9%).

• The loss making zones were:
  • metro Kolkata (247% and 264.38%),
  • North Eastern (151.93% and 160.88%),
  • Northeast Frontier (147.98% and 159.45%),
  • Eastern (161.3% and 152.84%),
  • Southern (118.55% and 120.79%) and
  • North Western ( 106.26% and 104.98%).

(3) Based on (1) and (2) above ECOR probably makes about 10% of Indian Railways profit.

Why does not ECOR have the track length commensurate with the earnings it makes?

Why are no serious efforts being made to correct this; especially with many planned lines being given only minimal annual budgets which in many cases are less than the annual inflation.

In terms of rail density: the average rail density (2004-05) for India is 19.13; the rail density is highest in Delhi (138.2) followed by West Bengal (43.4), Punjab (41.6), Haryana (36.1), Bihar (35.9), Uttar Pradesh (35.8), etc. while Chhatisgarh (8.6) and Orissa (14.6) are among the states with low rail densities.

(6) The data from (1-3) and (5) show that while Indian Railways is making a lot of revenue and profit from ECOR (big part of which is in Orissa) and also SER (part of which is in Orissa), both ECOR and Orissa have been grossly neglected. This is true about the past; what about the future?

Mr V. N. Mathur, Member (Traffic) of the Railway Board is reported to have said:

“We’ve submitted to the Planning Commission a Rs 251,000-crore proposal for implementation by the end of the Eleventh Plan. We’ve indicated mobilisation of Rs 90,000 crore from within and 29 per cent of the projected estimate by way of market borrowing. For the balance, we may have to approach the government for support. But then nothing has yet been finalised.”

 (8) Many expensive and highflying plans by Indian Railways for the 11^th plan, but most bypass Orissa and ECOR.

(8A) Freight Corridor: Various news reports suggest that the 11^th plan (next 5-7 years) will take up the western and eastern corridors.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/9030.html

Western Corridor: 1,483-km Delhi-Mumbai route

http://www.hindu.com/2006/09/17/stories/2006091708640400.htm reports that the “Chennai-Kolkata and Chennai-Mumbai corridors will be included in the second phase of the Dedicated Freight Corridor Project.” 

(8B) High Speed Corridors:

“Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar, Mumbai-Baroda-Ahmedabad, Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore and Howrah-Asansol-Patna — were announced in the current rail budget.”

(8C) Metro Rails and rapid transit systems: From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_in_India#Metro   and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalore_Metro

The following are the existing or under construction/expansion metro rail projects.

• Delhi Metro
• Hyderabad Metro
• Kolkata Metro
• Kolkata Suburban Railway
• Lucknow MEMU 
• Chennai Metro
• Mumbai Suburban Railway
• Bangalore Metro
• Mumbai Metro •
• Thane Metro
• In planning:
  • Ahmedabad Metro
  • Kochi Metro
  • Goa
  • Pune

(9) In essence revenue and profit generated in ECOR is being ploughed into other parts of India, which by itself is not wrong as Orissa is a part of India, but lets analyze who are the losers: the adivasi and backward areas of Orissa (and hence of India) who are backward partly because lack of proper connectivity, and this neglect continues to keep them backward and prevents them from catching up.

No, here are the data and following it is what planning commission teams have themselves said.

(10) The tribal population percentage of the KBK districts are as follows:
Malkangiri 58.36% (+19.96% SC), Rayagada 56.04% (+14.28% SC), Nabarangpur 55.27% (+15.09% SC), Koraput 50.67% (+13.41% SC), Nuapada 35.95% (+13.09% SC), Kalahandi 28.88% (+17.01% SC), Sonepur 22.11% (+9.5% SC), Balangir 22.06% (+15.39% SC). Two adjacent districts also have high tribal population. They are Kandhamala 51.51% (+18.21% SC) and Gajapati 47.88% (+8.77% SC).  Tirbal percentage of Mayurbhanj is 57.87% and Sundergarh is 50.74%.

(11) The literacy rates in the KBK districts are abysmally low. Malkangiri 31.26%, Nabarangpur 34.26%, Rayagada 35.61%, Koraput 36.2%, Nuapada 42.29%, Kalahandi 46.2%, Balangir 54.93%, Sonepur 64.07%. Two adjacent districts also have low literacy: Gajapati 41.73% and Kandhamala 52.95%. The state average is 63.1%.

(12) Population below the poverty line in southern Orissa (of which KBK is a part) is reported to be 89.17% of the people according to the 1999-2000 NSS data and 72% of the families according to the 1997 census.

(13) From http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article174.html

Table 1 provides State level data on poverty ratios during 2004-05. The lowest poverty ratio was 5.4 per cent for Jammu and Kashmir and highest poverty ratio was for Orissa (46.4 per cent). States with poverty ratio of less than 15 per cent were Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh. As against them, States with poverty ratio above 30 per cent were Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Orissa.

Table 1: Number and Percentage of Population Below Poverty Line (2004-05) based on URP Consumption

Rural

Urban

Combined

State	% of Persons	No. of persons (in lakhs)	% of Persons	No. of Persons (in lakhs)	% of persons	No. of persons(in lakhs)
S.No.	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)
1 Jammu & Kashmir	4.6	3.7	7.9	2.2	5.4	5.9
2 Punjab	9.1	15.1	7.1	6.5	8.4	21.6
3 Himachal Pradesh	10.7	6.1	3.4	0.2	10.0	6.4
4 Goa	5.4	0.4	21.3	1.6	13.8	2.0
5 Haryana	13.6	21.5	15.1	10.6	14.0	32.1
6 Delhi	6.9	0.6	15.2	22.3	14.7	22.9
7 Kerala	13.2	32.4	20.2	17.2	15.0	49.6
8 Andhra Pradesh	11.2	64.7	28.0	61.4	15.8	126.1
9 Gujarat	19.1	63.5	13.0	27.2	16.8	90.7
10 Assam	22.3	54.5	3.3	1.3	19.7	55.8
11 Rajasthan	18.7	87.4	32.9	47.5	22.1	134.9
12 Tamil Nadu	22.8	76.5	22.2	69.1	22.5	145.6
13 West Bengal	28.6	173.2	14.8	35.1	24.7	208.3
14 Karnataka	20.8	75.0	32.6	63.8	25.0	138.9
15 All-India	28.3	2209.2	25.7	808.0	27.5	3017.2
16 Maharashtra	29.6	171.1	32.2	146.3	30.7	317.4
17 Uttar Pradesh	33.4	473.0	30.6	117.0	32.8	590.0
18 Madhya Pradesh	36.9	175.7	42.1	74.0	38.3	249.7
19 Uttarakhand	40.8	27.1	36.5	8.9	39.6	36.0
20 Jharkhand	46.3	103.2	20.2	13.2	40.3	116.4
21 Chattisgarh	40.8	71.5	41.2	19.5	40.9	91.0
22 Bihar	42.1	336.7	34.6	32.4	41.4	369.2
23 Orissa	46.8	151.8	44.3	26.7	46.4	178.5

Note: States have been arranged in the ascending order on the basis of combined poverty ratio in 2004-05. Poverty line: Rs 356.0 in rural areas and Rs 538.6 in urban areas (Per capita monthly expenditure).

Source: Planning Commission, Press Release, March 2007.

Five States, namely, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa accounted for 166 million poor (about 55 per cent of the total poor estimated at 302 million). This shows the high concentration of poor in these five States.

(14) Planning Commission: The Planning Commission in its report comparing the development status of economic infrastructure of Orissa, especially the KBK region, vis-à-vis the country says:

"Railways have always played an important role in economic development and rapid social transformation in all parts of the globe. It is one of the key economic infrastructures. However, it is most unfortunate that in a poor and backward state like Orissa, development of rail networks has received much less attention of the Central Government in the post-independence period. There are as many as seven districts like Boudh, Kandhamal, Deogarh, Nayagarh, Kendrapara, Malkangiri and Nabarangpur out of the 30 districts of the state, which do not have any railway line passing through them. In the year 1998-99, the density of railway route length per 1000 sq. km of area in Orissa was only 15.03 km as against 42.66 km in West Bengal and 19.11 km. at all-India level”.

 (15) What we are asking with respect to KBK and adivasi areas of Orissa?

We are asking the current PM and the current planning commission to pay attention to what the planning commission report says in (15) and the data in (11)-(14).

In particular, we would like the following lines to be completed during the 11^th plan.

1)     Khurda – Balangir (This brings Railways to districts of Boudha, Sonepur and Nayagarh and bring Balangir – a part of KBK- closer to the state capital. This line of 290 km, initially budgeted at 700 crores, has all the necessary studies done, and its survey was complete before May 2004. It should be targeted to be completed within the next 2-3 years.)

2)     Gunupur-Theruvali (The Orissa govt. is ready to use PPP for this. This should also be done in 2-3 years together with the broad gauge conversion of Naupada-Gunupur line)

Lanjigarh Rd – Bhawanipatna – Junagarh – Nabarangpur- Jeypore – Malkangiri – Bhadrachalam Rd in Andhra Pradesh. (The first phase of this Lanjigarh Rd – Junagarh is 56 km with an estimated cost of 120 crores. 15% of it was completed before May 2004. This should be completed immediately within 1-2 years. This line lies completely within the KBK districts and when finished will bring Railways to the districts of Nabarangpur and Malkangiri. Moreover, the Malkangiri-Bhadrachalam Rd part could go through a bit of Chhatisgrah. This line will create a shorter and alternative Ranchi-Hyderabad route and bring connectivity to an area that is currently havited by many extremist groups. Not much has been done beyond Junagarh, so this must be immediately approved and work started so that the line gets completed by the end of the 11^th plan.)

Talcher – Bimlagarh (This is 154 km long and was estimated at Rs 727 crore. This will bring the tribal district of Sundergarh much closer to Orissa, connect a dangling line, and will bring passenger rail to big parts of Sundergarh. This should be completed in 3-4 years.)

(These lines connect dangling lines and will bring passenger rail to big parts of the tribal district of Mayurbhanj. Not much has been done, so this must be immediately approved and work started so that the line gets completed by the end of the 11^th plan.)

Badampahar-Keonjhar (This line also  connecst dangling lines and will bring passenger rail to big parts of the tribal district of Mayurbhanj. Not much has been done, so this must be immediately approved and work started so that the line gets completed by the end of the 11^th plan.)

1. Parlakhemundi, the district headquarter of Gajapati (part of KBK+) will be on Broad gauge rail and will be 305 kms from Bhubaneswar (the state capital).
2. Sonepur, the district HQ of Sonepur district will be on connected by rail and will be 259 kms from Bhubaneswar (the state capital).
3. Boudh, the district HQ of Boudha district will be connected by Rail and will be 217 kms from Bhubaneswar (the state capital).
4. Nayagarha, the district HQ of Nayagarha district will be connected by Rail and will be 84 kms from Bhubaneswar (the state capital).
5. Bhawanipatna, the district HQ of Kalahandi district (part of KBK) will be connected by Rail and will be 450 kms from Bhubaneswar via Balangir and 504 kms from Bhubaneswar (the state capital) via Gunupur.
6. Malkangiri, the district HQ of Malkangiri district (part of KBK) will  be connected by Rail.
7. Nabrangpur, the district HQ of Nabrangpur district (part of KBK) will be connected by Rail.
8. Balangir, the district HQ of Balangir district will now be 309 kms from Bhubaneswar instead of the earlier 397 kms.
9. Nawapara Rd, near the district HQ of Nawapara district will now be 459 kms from Bhubaneswar instead of the earlier 547 kms.
10. Rayagada, the district HQ of Rayagada district will now be 419 kms from Bhubaneswar instead of the earlier 502 kms.
11. Koraput, the district HQ of Koraput district will now be 573 kms from Bhubaneswar instead of the earlier 676 kms.
12. Titlagarh, a major junction will now be 373 kms from Bhubaneswar instead of the earlier 461 kms.
13. There will be an alternate shorter path from Ranchi to Hyderabad via Titlagarh-Bhawanipatna-Nabrangpur-Jeypore-Malkangiri-Bhadrachalam Rd

(17) Is the Indian railway under the UPA government neglecting Orissa than the previous government?

(18) In the 2004 railway budget given at http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=869 (items 35,37) the then Railway Minister Nitish Kumar had proposed the Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana which aimed to complete lines like Khurda-Balangir within the next 5 years. This has been completely sidelined by the UPA government. This is what he said.

(18 A) Following is the exact wording, in items 35 and 37 of the 2004 Railway budget.

    * 35. Railways have a large shelf of over 230 projects worth about Rs. 43,000 cr, for construction of New Lines, Gauge Conversion, Doubling, Electrification and Metropolitan Transport Projects. Even with the enhanced budgetary support, non-budgetary initiatives under National Rail Vikas Yojana and other cost sharing mechanisms apart from Defence funding of some projects of strategic importance, there will still be projects valuing Rs. 20,000 cr which would remain unfinished even after the next five years. A large number of these have been sanctioned on socio economic considerations with the intention of connecting remote and backward areas with the rail network. However their progress is very slow on account of inadequate funding, which causes dissatisfaction. Connecting these areas with the rail network will facilitate the economic and social development of these areas and will provide major employment opportunities during construction and thereafter. Keeping these factors in mind, it has been decided to speed up the execution and completion of these projects also in the next five years. I am happy to inform the House that this would be done through an ambitious ‘Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana’, with an additional outlay of Rs. 20,000 crore.
    *

    * 37. This decision to accelerate the completion of all projects in five years is expected, on a broad estimate, to provide yearly employment to about 3 lakh persons during the construction period. Once opened for traffic, these lines would also require about 18000 persons per year for normal maintenance and operations, on incremental basis. Apart from this, it is expected that there will be scope for indirect employment of nearly 55000 persons per year. The ‘Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana’ will go a long way in changing the economic and social scenario of the remote and backward regions of the country and bringing the people of these areas into the mainstream. Further, the demand for steel, cement, rolling stock, fittings, components, plant and machinery will also be generated, boosting the economic growth of the entire country.

(18 B) World Bank:

http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/240060/India%20%20financing%20infrastructure%20-%20addressing%20constraints%20and%20challenges.pdf
June 2006 report (page 70 above Table A8)

The second project envisaged by the railways was announced in the interim Budget of 2004- 05 and is called Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana (RARSY). This involves executing and completing hitherto sanctioned projects related to connecting remote and backward areas with the rail network till 2010. The total investments in these projects is valued at Rs.200 billion. Presumably this is to be entirely funded by budget
support.

(18 C)   http://164.100.24.208/ls/CommitteeR/Railways/16th-Report.pdf
Railway Standing Committee Report 2005-06

Page 19:

To bridge this gap and considering the slow progress, projects especially in backward, underdeveloped and remote areas due to constraint of resources, Government had announced "Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana" (RARSY) in the Interim Budget 2004-05 which envisages investment of about Rs.20,000 crore in a period of 5 years on ongoing projects taken up on socio-economic considerations. However, the funds for the Yojana are yet to be tied up. Government in has attached priority to  infrastructure development. Keeping this commitment in view, a proposal has  been mooted for creation of Remote Area Rail Infrastructure Fund for financing the RARSY. If the Government approves the funding of this Yojana, all the ongoing projects will get completed in five years. The yojana is being processed in consultation with the Ministry of Finance for approval of the Government duly identifying the funding sources. A note in this regard is under process in the Ministry for consideration of Government.

3.10 Giving the details of the new initiatives to address the foregoing funds constraints, the Chairman, Railway Board stated as under:-
"Over the last few years, certain initiatives have been taken to see how we will fund over projects so that the pace of adding new lines, gauge conversion and doubling speeds up. We have introduced funding through defence for strategic lines. We have got some of the projects declared as the national projects where the funding is given directly by the Government. We have also initiated private participation in some cases, we have also
launched the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited which is generating funds through various sources including the market borrowing. Our need was to generate about Rs.47,000 crore to take care of the projects on the shelf. Out of this, we found that we can generate about Rs.12,500 crore or so out of the normal Budgetary support as per the past trends. We would be generating about Rs.18,000 crore due to the new initiatives that have been taken in the past few years. It still leaves us a gap of about Rs.17,000 crore to take care of
the projects which are by and large non-remunerative projects but they are on the shelf. These are the projects which are connecting distant areas, backward areas. They were sanctioned on socio-economic considerations and so many other considerations. Even for the sum of Rs.17,000 crore, which is our requirement, in the year 2004, in the Interim Budget, a scheme of Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana was introduced. We are yet to finsalise the funding pattern under this scheme. The effort is to involve the State Government’s participation into this scheme as also through other means.
We are yet to give it a final shape."

3.11 In response to the concern of the Committee as to why the completion targets of the projects are not being fixed, the Chairman, Railway Board stated as under:-

"most of these projects will not be completed in the next few years. In fact, the projects where target has not been given is because normally we give targets for projects which are going to be over in the next two to three years.  But where it is going to be a distant period and where we do not know as to how much funds would be allocated for these projects, we do not give targets for those projects. So, wherever targets are given these are the projects which will take more than two to three years to get completed depending on how much funds are given. On our part, we have tried to revive the CapitalFund to see that we can put in more money.

Page 22: Talks about National Projects

3.12 In the absence of adequate internal generation of revenues by the Railways,
the following projects has been declared by the Government as the national Projects in the National interest. The funding for these projects are ensured by the Central Exchequer in the form of additional Budgetary Support to the Railways.

(18 D) Summing up this point:

In summary, based on earlier planning commission report as excerpted in (14) the 2004 Rail budget had the scheme RARSY which would have completed KBK connectivity lines like Khurda-Blangir. But the UPA government has buried that plan and has talked about burdening the state government for these lines, which since they can not afford, basically means abandoning these lines. This approach needs to be reversed and while India and Indian Railway marches ahead it must not forget the backward and adivasi areas of India and Orissa; especially when it makes money from transporting freight (minerals) from these areas.

(19.5) While the above are finished during the 11^th plan, we will patiently wait for the 12^th plan

• for the 2^nd phase of freight corridor involving Howrah-Chennai that will pass through Orissa;
• for high speed rail between Howrah-Bhubaneswar-Visakhapatnam, Visakhapatnam-Hyderabad, and Visakhapatnam-Chennai;
• for a metro rail for greater Bhubaneswar; and
• additional lines such as Jaleshwar-Digha, Berhampur-Phulbani, Bargarh-Nawapara Road and Talcher-Berhampur.

 

Following is from a PIB.

The Government is committed to create a network of world-class airports in the country with a view to establishing India as a global aviation hub. Measures have been taken to augment capacity as a result of which additional capacity to handle 601.05 lakh passengers per annum on the domestic sector and 301.80 lakh passengers per annum on international sector is under construction and is likely to be commissioned within the next two – three years. This information was given by Shri Praful Patel in a written reply to a question.

The Government has undertaken a number of major projects in pursuance of the above objective; to develop, expand, modernize the airports which include

• Restructuring of Delhi and Mumbai airport, through Joint Venture Route, for upgradation and modernization, at an estimated cost of Rs. 8900 crores and Rs. 7000 crores respectively;
• Modernizing and expansion of Kolkata and Chennai airports by the Airports Authority of India (AAI);
• Construction of new Greenfield airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore at a cost of Rs. 2480 and Rs. 1930 crores respectively. Operation of these airports is expected to be commenced by mid 2008. Greenfield airport at Pekyong, Sikkim at an estimated cost of Rs. 320 crores has been approved. In principle approval has also been accorded to a new international airport at Navi Mumbai through Public Private Partnership (PPP). Greenfield airport is also being envisaged at Mopa (Goa);
• Modernizing of select 35 non-metro airports at an estimated cost of about Rs. 5000 crores. The modernization process of these 35 non-metro airports is expected to be completed by March 2010. The Terminal Building and Air Side works are being undertaken by the AAI while the City Side development at selected 24 non-metro airports will be done through private sector participation;
• Upgradation of communication, navigation and surveillance facilities;
• AAI has spent an amount of Rs. 3535 crores for development/ expansion/modernization of airports during the 10^th Five Year Plan and a provision of Rs. 12434 crores has been made by the AAI in the 11^th Five Year Plan for this purpose;
• Government is encouraging Private Participation/Investments in airport infrastructure through the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP Route) further, Government has also permitted 100% FDI, through automatic route, in Greenfield airports;
• The airports are being constructed and developed at Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh; Shimoga, Bijapur, Gulbarga, Hassan and Karwar in Karnataka, Kannur in Kerala; Chennai in Tamilnadu; Itanagar and Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh; Chiethu in Nagaland; Pekyong in Sikkim; Kokrajhar in Assam; Greater Noida, Agra in Uttar Pradesh; Ajmer (Kishangarh) and Kota in Rajasthan; Halwara in Punjab; Surankote and Kishtwar in Jammu & Kashmir; Durgapur in West Bengal; Sindhudurg, Shirdi, Chakan and Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra;
• There are a large number of non-operational and unused airports in the country belonging to the AAI, defence, state governments and private licensees. The Government is keen to promote development of such airports and make them operational to meet the growing need of airport infrastructure in the country. The airstrips at Pant Nagar, Kamalpur, Kailash Ahar, Passighat, Tezu, Along, Daparizo, Tura and Zero are being upgraded;
• In coordination with the State Governments, the AAI has decided to take up development works at the non-operational airports at Akola, Cooch Behar, Kuddapah, Kolhapur, Mysore, Sholapur, Warangal, Surat and Gondia – on the request of airlines and the State Governments.

From a PIB. (In general, the more the power consumption, the more developed a state/country is and the more industrialized the state/country is. With the conservation movement, this may change though. )

 

STATEWISE GROSS ANNUAL PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION OF ELECTRICITY DURING THE YEAR 2005-06 (UTILITIES & NON-UTILITIES)

Name of the	Per Capita Consumption*
State /U.T.s	of  Electricity  (kWh)
Haryana	1090.39
Himachal Pradesh	765.86
Jammu & Kashmir	711.01
Punjab	1436.79
Rajasthan	572.20
Uttar Pradesh	311.82
Uttarakhand	654.84
Chandigarh	1553.96
Delhi	1766.94
Sub-Total(NR)	602.56
Gujarat	1283.77
Madhya Pradesh	580.34
Chhattisgarh	685.81
Maharashtra	934.43
Goa	1970.08
Daman & Diu	8300.12
D. & N Haveli	11567.67
Sub-Total(WR)	916.28
Andhra Pradesh	723.10
Karnataka	720.43
Kerala	424.13
Tamil Nadu	976.81
Lakshadweep	368.29
Pondicherry	2509.25
Sub-Total(SR)	757.79
Bihar	85.86
Jharkhand	548.74
Orissa	633.93
West Bengal	380.61
A.& N. Islands	407.77
Sikkim	429.81
Sub-Total(ER)	332.21
Assam	170.65
Manipur	215.21
Meghalaya	517.54
Nagaland	179.34
Tripura	190.62
Arunachal Pradesh	297.66
Mizoram	250.15
Sub-Total(NER)	201.44
Total (All India)	631.41
Note :  * As per UN methodology :Per Capita Consumption equal to gross

The per capita consumption of electricity in some  developed countries as calculated by the International Energy Agency for the year 2004 is as  given below:

Sl. No.	Name of the Country	Per Capita Consumption (kWh)
1	Canada	17179
2	USA	13338
3	Australia	11126
4	Japan	8076
5	France	7689
6	Germany	7030
7	United Kingdom	6206
8	Russia	5642
9	Italy	5644

Source: International Energy Agency publication “ Key word Energy Statistics, 2006”.                             

 

Some of the earlier news reports on national waterways in Orissa are linked from this site. Following is the latest development, as reported in an Indian Express article. Excerpts:

The Parliamentary Standing Committee has shown the green signal to two new national waterways in West Bengal-Orissa and Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu even as it called for an integrated transport policy and an institutional framework for inland water transport. … The other waterway—Talcher-Dhamra stretch of the Brahmni-Kharsua-Dhamra Rivers, Goenkhali-Charbatia stretch of the East Coast canal, Charbatia-Dhamra stretch of Matai River and Mahandai delta rivers between Mangalgadi and Paradip is also up for the national waterway status. Around 18.07 million tonnes of inland water transport traffic is expected to be carried out on the proposed waterway after its full development in eight years time. The traffic is expected to be handled at four terminals—Talcher, Nasirabd, Balasore and Rajnagar and the major cargoes are coal, fertiliser, cement, iron ore, agricultural and industrial products. The Standing Committee, however, has recommended the Government to prepare the road map for an integrated transport policy to include inland water transport, coastal shipping, civil aviation, road transport & highways for enabling better inter-connectivity amongst multiple modes of transport. The Committee has also called for provision of an institutional framework for development of IWT sector so as to increase capacity of IWT agencies, increased cost recovery and commercialisation of IWT industries. In case of the West Bengal-Orissa waterway, the Committee has suggested that another terminal be developed at Geonkhali in West Bengal to enable better traffic handling. It was also noted by the panel that there’s need to develop an action plan to address the growing demand of repair and service facilities of IWT vessels.

The final step for the bill would be to getting approval in both houses of the parliament.

Following up on the standing committee’s recommendation it may be appropriate to establish an airport near Jenapur-Kabatabandha as the ECOR Howrah-Chennai Railway line and NH 200 (Chandikhol-Sukinda-Talcher) intersects the national waterway at that point; NH 5A (Chandikhol-Paradip), NH 5 (Panikoili-Chandikhol) and NH 215 (Panikoili-Keonjhar) are close by; Haridaspur – Paradeep railway line will start very near to that point; Jakhapura-Banspani line also starts close to that point and that airport will serve the greater Kalinga Nagar area where multiple steel plants and other plants are coming up. Going further on that, the Orissa government is supposed to have made a master plan for Kalinga nagar. Following is an excerpt from a year old report (May 28, 2006) in Steelguru on that. (See also this New Indian Express report)

Orissa government has decided to prepare a master plan for Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district. South Africa based Lea Associates will prepare the master plan in collaboration with School of Planning and Architect, New Delhi and the Centre for Environment and Planning. The master plan will be completed by July. Kalinga Nagar Industrial Area will be developed for a population of over 10 lakh keeping an eye on 2025 and will be extended to 177 square kilometers. As per the draft, the KNIA will be extended to 134 villages. So far 112 villages have been included in the industrial area. About 1 million hectare land will be acquired by the Government in a phased manner for the development of the area. According to the draft plan, 68 square kilometer out of the total area will be reserved for town planning. About 89 square kilometer will be earmarked for industrial units while 20 square kilometer will be reserved for development of different infrastructure including bus stand, hotels, schools and hospital. Decision has also been taken to set up Kalinga Nagar Development Authority.

Following are the main objections raised by the states Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Rajasthan, and Karnataka, as reported in various news papers. We give excerpts from the Economic Times report.

(i) The main objection of mineral-rich states pertains to control and use of iron ore resources. The state governments want it should be within their rights to offer minerals to companies that propose to set up steel industry within the states.

(ii) The final draft of the National Mineral Policy has said while states could have a system of preference for grant of mineral licences, they could not deny movement of minerals outside the states. “The amendments in Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act (MMDR Act) should clarify this position,” a Orissa government source said.

(iii) The states are also against the provision in the policy that aims to curb their powers in case there is a delay in the grant of mineral lease to an applicant. It has also been suggested that existing provisions of the MMDR Act, which give states special powers in grant of mining leases, should be retained.

(iv) The states have also objected to continuation of iron ore exports and said there was no point in giving captive iron ore mines to companies having steel plants located in other states. The policy has said captive mines would be offered to steel companies on the basis of their existing capacities as in July 2006.

It has been reported that when the chief ministers of these states went to meet the GOM head Mr. Patil, he did not even show them the draft. This is contrary to the earlier report which mentioned that Mr. Patil would discuss the draft and get the consent from the chief ministers. How can one get a consent from a group on a draft without even showing the group what the draft contains?

If they indeed listen to Orissa’s concerns, take them into account and get a consent on the new mining policy that would be really wonderful and a break from the past. If the UPA government continues like this (need to approve the more IIT and IIM plan and make railways more equitable) then it will be one of the most equitable government of India ever. The following excerpts from a Reuters report really gives hope.

India’s new mining policy is likely to approved by the cabinet within the next two months, the junior mines minister said on Thursday.

T. Subbirami Reddy said the head of a ministerial panel set up to examine the policy would meet the chief ministers of mineral-rich Jharkhand and Orissa to resolve differences before sending the policy for cabinet approval.

“Once they give their consent, we will take it to the cabinet. It will take between one to two months,” Reddy said.

The new policy is expected to help foreign and domestic firms invest in the exploration and mining of gold, diamonds and metals like copper and zinc.

Following is Dharitri’s report on it.

Statesman reports that the central government is planing to establish one of three animal rescue centers in Orissa. Following are excerpts of that report.

Kapilas is chosen only to house the wild lives rescued from different places for protection of wild animals. …

Kapilas is chosen for various reasons such as suitable infrastructure, water flows, habitable environment for wild animals, natural forest growth, an existing deer park and communication for proper management and other facilities. Divisional forest division has already communicated to government about existing facilities and amenities available in Kapilas.

The purpose of the centre is to bring those wild animals being wounded or troubling villagers in human habitation to be brought to the rescue centre from different places. Thus animals including elephants will be protected and villagers be tension free. After primary care they will be sent back to forest. Union ministry will take a decision in the last week of this month to approach the Supreme Court for final approval. If approved, Kapilas will be first rescue centre in Orissa.

Kapilas is 16 kms from Dhenkanal and considered a tourist spot.

Following is Samaja’s report on this.

Pioneer reports on this grant to Puri under JNNRUM. (Additional site 1, site 2, site 3) Following are some excerpts from that report.

… sanctions were accorded to 10 new development projects in Puri under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission entailing an estimated expenditure of Rs 186 crore. … The project includes construction of a new lodging house for tourists at a cost of Rs 20 crore, a renovation project for old mutts costing Rs 100 crore, construction of a new multistoreyed parking place for vehicles worth Rs10 crore, a new conference hall specially for holy discourses valuing Rs10 crore, a cultural heritage site for the Jagannath Temple pegged at Rs10 crore, renovation and maintenance of old ponds in Puri for Rs 20 crore, establishment of a new heritage museum inside SriMandir at a cost of Rs 5 crore, construction of a heritage garden inside Sri Jagannath Ballava Math at a cost of Rs10 crore, construction of concrete road around the Meghanad Prachir (compound wall) with steel barricades costing Rs 50 lakh and construction of drains and other sanitary works valuing Rs 50 lakh in Puri town.

The Statesman reports on this. Following are some excerpts.

The railway ministry continues to show its step-motherly attitude towards the Talcher – Bimlagarh railway line, which is one of the most important and vital railway links in the state. This is one of the most controversial railway projects, having been undertaken about forty years ago and is yet to witness completion. Every year money is put on this 200 kilometre project, for the purpose of keeping it alive.

Answering to a question raised by Mr Juel Oram, the MP, Sundergarh, Mr Velluraman the minister of state for railways, informed that the department has sanctioned an amount of Rs 15 crore for this railway link. The minister added that the amount has been allotted for expansion, survey and other such works needed before laying the railway track. 

“The ministry is not very serious about it, for which it has been neglected for years. This little amount is meant to keep the project alive,” the official said. This vital link will certainly go a long way in improving the economic condition of the state, besides increasing the connectivity between western and coastal Orissa. This railway link will also provide an easy approach for goods to reach the Paradip port and it will earn more profit.

The report by the high level committee on National Mineral Policy (Hoda committee report) is available in the planning commission’s web page. The “Conclusions and Recommendations” of the initial Hoda committee report is available here. Orissa government’s response to the initial Hoda committee report is here and further lobbying the PM on this issue is here. To understand the various nuances this old Business world article is very useful.

(Note: Earlier we compiled several mining related links here.)