___________

Google Map Link: https://www.google.com/maps/@20.2471662,85.7396776,3429m/data=!3m1!1e3

In Design Studio Ahmedabad has developed a master plan for the above area. See details at https://www.inidesignstudio.info/dev/portfolio/town-planning-scheme-tps-02-bhubaneswar/

Update: SAIL RSP has now agreed to consider upgrading IGH (Ispat general Hospital) to a medical college. All that was needed was the CM asking for it. The Odia papers suggest that he already agreed. If this works out then the 4 public sectors MCL, NTPC, NALCO and SAIL will each be making medical colleges at Talcher, Sundergarh, Koraput and Rourkela respectively.

If the IGH upgradation happens it will be the second medical college in Rourkela. (Note that HiTech medical college is now operational in Rourkela and has taken the first batch of MBBS students.) When the NTPC medical college is made in Sundergarh, the medical college count in that district will then go to 3.

Next Odisha government must push the other companies that heavily use Odisha minerals to contribute at the similar level. The TATAs who have mining in Odisha for more than 100 years should be told to establish medical colleges in Joda-Barbil and Sukinda-Kalinganagar and do much more.

Following are some of the projects that are in progress as collected from various media reports.

• NALCO has agreed to build a medical college at Koraput. A few days back (I think sometime in June 2012) the state government decided to ask NALCO for this and this was in the media around July 3rd. The NALCO officials met the concerned government officials on July 5th and NALCO immediately agreed to this proposal. In the past the public sectors MCL and NTPC had agreed to establish medical colleges in Talcher and Sundergarh respectively. Odisha now must push SAIL for a medical college in Rourkela.
• As per this Times of India report: "New Delhi-based OSL Group’s Centre for Joint Disorders will established a 150-seat medical college, 750-bed super-speciality hospital, a dental college and a nursing college in Bhubaneswar. The group has promised to start work within two months…"
• As per this Times of India report: "The upcoming Sardar Rajas medical college and hospital at Jaring in Kalahandi district, being established by Selvam Education and Charitable Trust of Tamil Nadu, will start admitting students from the next academic year …"
• As per this Times of India report: "The sDFID of UK has been preparing a report to facilitate a medical college in Balangir. "
• As per this Times of India report: "land transfer work for the proposed medical college by Sahyog Foundation in Keonjhar will be fast-tracked"
• As per this Times of India report: "the government would soon examine the proposals of Basantidevi Charitable Trust and Bidyabharti Charitable Trust as well to open a medical college in Rayagada."
• As per this Times of India report: "The government has also agreed in principle to a proposal from Shankar Netralaya of Chennai to start a 200-bed eye hospital in Berhampur."
• As per this Times of India report: "The government on Tuesday asked Bangalore-based Narayana Hrudayalaya, which has taken land from the state government to establish a super-speciality hospital in Bhubaneswar, or start work or return the land. The group assured to start work by September.
• As per this article in Business Standard: " Odisha government today asked the Centre to set up a National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Science (NIMHANS) besides expediting establishment of a para-medical training institute in the state."
• As per this article in Telegraph: "The Acharya Harihar Cancer Institute at Cuttack will be upgraded and seats along with number of employees will be enhanced, said Union Health Secretary Prasanna Kumar Pradhan while attending a review meeting here on Sunday. It will be an apex institute in the country, Pradhan added. In the review meeting, Pradhan said Rs 200 crore would be sanctioned during the 12th Five-Year Plan to upgrade this premier cancer treatment institute of the State. Now the institute has 320 beds which will be increased to 600, he added."
• As per this article in Times of India: "the minister also asked the Union health secretary to expedite process for establishment of the proposed Regional Institute of Paramedical Sciences (RIPS). The state government has already given around 25 acre land for the paramedical institute near the AIIMS."
• As per this article in Times of India: "The state government sought financial assistance for infrastructure development of the three medical colleges to increase the MBBS seat strength from the current 150 to 250 each."
• As per this article in Times of India: "The government also submitted a proposal to create super-speciality disciplines in VSS Medical College and Hospital, Burla and MKCG Medical College and Hospital, Berhampur. The government has sought central assistance of Rs 150 crore each for superspeciality faculty in the two hospitals."
• As per this article in Times of India: "Acharya requested the Union health secretary to upgrade the geriatric ward of SCB Medical College and Hospital into a Regional Geriatric centre. Designating a regional centre will attract better central funding, Acharya said. "

A good news and a bad news:

• Good News: Hi-Tech medical college in Rourkela has got approval to admit 100 students fro this academic year. This will be the 4th private medical college (and the first outside of Bhubaneswar) in operation in Odisha.
• Bad News: KIMS Bhubaneswar has been debarred to admit students for two year.

Following is an excerpt from an article by Tavleen Singh in Indian Express.

So a junior minister, Jairam Ramesh, was allowed to begin the process of taking the Indian economy down by stopping huge infrastructure projects after investments worth thousands of crore rupees had already been made. Why did the Prime Minister not stop the Ministry of Environment from being turned into a secret instrument for a new licence raj?

Unfortunately, Odisha bore the biggest burnt of Jairam Ramesh’s folly when he stopped Vedanta University.

Following are excerpts from an excellent article by Bibhuti Barik in Telegraph.

The proposed corridor will include nine places linked to Jagannath Dham and the rich tradition of Odia art, craft, architecture and rural lifestyle.

… “We want to touch a part of Odisha’s essence through this heritage corridor. It will start from places in the neighbourhood of the capital, such as Sisupalgarh, Gangotri Nagar, Dhauli, Pipili, Danda Mukundapur, Dasia Bauri Peetha, Sakhigopal, Danda Sahi and Raghurajpur. While the first two places can be tagged together as they are near the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, Danda Mukundapur, Dasia Bauri Peetha, Sakhigopal and Danda Sahi need special emphasis so that the travellers can get to know about them and their historical links,” said a senior official of the state tourism and culture department.

The department’s principal secretary Ashok Tripathy said: “… we are going to put an extra emphasis on the rural sector. The heritage corridor will be the first effort towards the initiative. We are going to give the travellers a feel of not only the rural Odisha, but also the essence of our cultural traditions attached to it, in the form of crafts, dance forms, saga of Lord Jagannath and the folklores linked to the holy city and its temples.”

While Sisupalgarh is one of the unique fort settlements in the world and dates back to the Mauryan-era, Gangotri Nagar is fast becoming a small but beautiful settlement of national award winning artists in patta chitra and stone carving.

But after visiting the two places, one can move up to Dhauli where apart from the famous peace pagoda a sculpture garden is already in the pipeline.

While Pipili represents a nice cooperation between Muslims and Hindus with its appliqué work, the state culture and tourism department is also planning a project to attract tourists near the diversion of NH-203 which is under renovation.

… Danda Mukundapur is famous for poet Bhakta Salbeg, a Muslim follower in love with Lord Jagannath. There is a place where Bhakta Dasia, a devotee of Lord Jagannath from the weaver community was born and proved that through love and devotion one can conquer the Lord. It is said that the image of the Trinity once appeared in a sacred pond near Dasia’s house when some priests came calling to realise Dasia’s tale. The lush green surroundings, including the paddy fields, coconut and banana plantations recreate another Kerala inside Odisha.

Sakhigopal also has the sacred Sakhigopinath temple which, according to legend, is a shrine describing the Lord’s love for his follower. Sakhigopal is the major work place of the famous five friends or Panchasakha — Gopabandhu, Acharya Harihara, Nilakantha, Krupasindhu and Godabarish.

The last two places — Danda Sahi and Raghurajpur — are famous for patta chitra. However, while the latter became famous with proper patronage and promotion, Danda Sahi is yet to get prominence that it deserves. Raghurajpur has already become a model village with traditional studios of the artists, Gotipua dance recitals, cultural exchanges between the foreign tourists or artists and local talents.

Following is from a report in Economic Times.

The government has identified site for setting up Rs 18,000-crore imported coal-based ultra mega power project in Orissa, power secretary Uma Shankar said.

The 4,000-mw plant, one of the three such proposed projects in the state, will be located at Bhadrak. A team of Central Electricity Authority will on April 21 visit the state for finalising location of the third ultra mega power project that would be run on imported coal, he said.

Orissa’s first ultra mega power project at Bedabahal is under bidding.

An important reason behind Bhadrak being the location must be the Dhamara port and its competitive pricing. This is a glimpse of the impact of having new ports. Odisha must push the other new ports that are in various stages of planning. As we have discussed before, the ports will serve the traffic from/to the countries in the east.

A brief description of the program is given here and here. Following are some excerpts.

About PMRDF The Ministry of Home Affairs has identified 60 districts of the country as Left Wing Extremism (LWE) districts. The Government of India has launched a special programme in these districts called Integrated Action Plan (IAP). On 13th of September, Union Minister of Rural Development Mr. Jairam Ramesh announced a scheme of PM’s Rural Development Fellows for deploying young professionals in each of the IAP districts to assist the District Collector. Mission PMRDFs will basically function as development facilitators, they will assist the Collector and his/her colleagues in each of the IAP districts and provide them with the necessary analysis of situations and how they should be handled. The fellows would actively pursue a district programming approach following three key strategies given below:

• Strengthen the district resource base for programming by finding ways of resourcing all the planned activities and rational budgeting.

• Establish or strengthen systems by exploring alternative ways of delivering services to reach the most deprived communities.

• Trigger processes which would support the changes that have been envisioned in this approach (e.g. village planning).

This would be complemented by a set of supportive actions such as building the capacity of district and block officials; triggering district-wide social mobilization processes particularly among the youth; achieve a ground swell of support and build strong relationships with the Panchayats.

The number of districts is now 78 instead of 60. Each of these districts will have two fellows. 18 of those districts are in Odisha. They are listed below. We welcome the 36 fellows that will be working in those districts in Odisha and will be happy to help them in any way possible.

Following is an excerpt from an article in Pioneer.

In the biodiversity management, three eco-tourism destination sites were developed in Satkosia, Bhitarakaniaka and Similipal. Community reserves and heritage sites were developed in five places. Bichitrapur mangrove area near Jaleswar, Rissia wildlife sanctuary in Baleswar wildlife division, Mandasaur in Phulbani forest division, Khasada waterfall, Black Pepper plantations, Gandahati waterfall and Red Sanders plantations in Paralakhemindi Forest Division were taken up for development as  new eco-tourism destinations.

Ports have economic and infrastructural impact on the nearby areas.  The recently operational Dhamara Port already has given a highway and railway line between Bhadrak and Dhamara. The proposed container depot (discussed in the Dharitri article below) will be another of its initial contribution.

Following is from Dharitri.

As S. Pani points out Indigo is going to have the following new flights through Bhubaneswar:

Starting 16th Feb:
6E 293 Kolkata-Bhubaneswar-Mumbai-Coimbatore
6E 294 Coimbatore-Mumbai-Bhubaneswar-Kolkata

Starting 7th March
6E 511 Chennai-Vizag-Bhubaneswar-Kolkata
6E 512 Kolkata-Bhubaneswar-Vizag-Chennai

With these and other recent changes following is a glimpse of the flight connectivity between Bhubaneswar and other cities. We only show direct flights or flights with one stop (but no plane changes).

Kolkata:

Delhi: (Note – The Jetlite flight does not show up in the left.)Mumbai: (The Jetlite and Jet Konect flights below refer to the same flight.)

Bangalore: (The Jetlite and Jet Konect flights below refer to the same flight.)
Hyderabad: (For some reason the above Jet Konnect/Jet Lite flight to  Hyderabad does not show up below.)Chennai: (The Air India flight below is five days a week.)Visakhapatnam:      Port Blair: Coimbatore:

The new flights that Indigo introduced has the hopping schedule that South West airlines in USA has. Such a hopping schedule allows for additional 1 or 2 stop connections without plane changes. I hope in the future similar connectivity is added to places like Cochin, Pune, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Indore, Guwahati, Lucknow/Kanpur etc.

I also noticed that on some days the price to fly between Bhubaneswar and Mumbai is more than flying from Bhubaneswar to Coimbatore via Mumbai on the same flight.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer. 

With top software companies chalking out their strategies for growth, the top administrators in the Information Technology (IT) sector in Odisha say that by 2013 the state will have more than 10,000 seats for software professionals.

TCS, Infosys, Wipro and above all MindTree have started their plans for expansion in Odisha in a big way, said an official in the Department of IT(DoIT).

MindTree, a global IT and Product engineering services company, is starting work on its 20-acre campus from Thursday, said sources.Though MindTree wanted to open its campus way back in 2004, bureaucratic wrangles forced the IT major to wind up its plan. However, with the intervention of the top officials in the DoIT, it has once again taking up the job to set up 2,000-seater campus by 2013, which will ultimately a 10,000-seater campus in future.DoIT Secretary and IDCO CMD Pradeep Jena played a crucial role in roping in the Global IT company to Odisha by providing 20-acres of land in Infocity I.

… Wipro has also started construction of its campus in Infocity I, said an offcial.

This will be a 3,000-seater campus with the latest facilities for software development.Similarly, Infosys has decided to be co-developer of a 50-acre zone in Info Valley SEZ coming up near Khurda.

DoIT sources said 5,000 seats would be developed in next two years.TCS has also started adding its second campus with 3,500 seats in Infocity I.All these companies would be adding 10,000 seats by 2013 …

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

Mid-sized IT solution provider MindTree Ltd has plans to complete its Orissa project by 2017 and the first phase by June 2013 …

… MindTree will invest Rs 250 crore in a span of five years to build the facility, which can employ 5,000 persons and can train 1,000 freshers, he informed while saying that the entire campus will have the touch of Puri temple along with modern architecture.

In its Bhubaneswar campus, the company will provide all its services including specialised Product Engineering Services that accounts for a third of its revenue. After its completion, it will also look for universities which can make changes in their curriculum to suit the business requirement, he said.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

Though the AAI had asked the State Government to make available a total of 815 acres of land for the airport project, the latter had requested the AAI to scale down the land requirement since maximum 734 acres are available in the area.

Now, the State Government has assured the AAI to provide additional land of around 40 acres for upgradation of the airstrip. Patnaik said the 40 acres of land would help construct a 6,000-feet-long runway. The district Collector has been told to identify suitable land and clear the encroachment, if any, before handing over the land to the AAI.

Although the above is a good step, considering the important of this airport towards well-rounded development of Odisha the government is too slow. It needs to move faster.

(Thanks to Devasis Sarangi for the pointer to this in facebook.)

Following is from a report in Business Standard.

Number one in growth over last year’s net direct tax collection during April 1-December 1 is Bhubaneswar, with a 52.6 per cent increase at Rs 4,187 crore (Rs 2,744 crore in last year’s corresponding period). Of the collection this year, Rs 2,959 crore has come from corporate tax and Rs 1,226 crore from personal income tax.

A senior department official said the better growth in direct tax realisation in smaller regions clearly indicated an increase in business activities in these. And, that this had come despite overall sluggish performance.

I am tempted to draw more conclusions but am not sure of jurisdictions of each of the locations in the left. For example, for the number corresponding to Bhubaneswar, is the data just about collection from Bhubaneswar city (as defined by what?) or about the collection from Bhubaneswar tax circle (what are the areas it covers?). Although not knowing this makes it difficult to draw more conclusions, one thing is for sure; Bhubaneswar tops in the growth of direct tax collections.

Following is a list of museums and ASI ticketed monuments in and around Bhubaneswar:

1. Odisha State Museum, Bhubaneswar. (branch museums at: Puri, Dhenkanal, Salipur, Khiching, Baripada, Balasore, Nuapara, Bhawanipatna, Balangir, Jeypore, Baragarh and Koraput)
2. Museum of Tribal Arts and Artifacts, Bhubaneswar.
3. Regional Museum of Natural History (RMNH), Bhubaneswar.
4. Regional Science Center, Bhubaneswar
5. Handloom and Handicrafts museum, Bhubaneswar (being set up)
6. ASI Museum in Konark.
7. ASI Museum in Ratnagiri.
8. ASI Museum in Lalitgiri (being constructed)
9. ASI Ticketed Monuments (Konark, Udaygiri and Khandagiri caves, Rajarani temple, Lalitgiri, Ratnagiri)
10. Srikhetra Culture Museum, Puri (being constructed)
11. Dhenkanal Science Center. (Kapilas Science Park.)

Following is a list of live museums in and around Bhubaneswar:

1. Nandan Kanan, Barang
2. State Botanical Garden, Barang
3. Regional Plant Resource Center (Ekamra Kanan), Bhubaneswar (with a cactus garden, arboretum, orchidarium, bamboosetum, wild fruit garden and palmetum)
4. Medicinal plant garden, Patrapada, Bhubaneswar
5. Jayadev Vatika, Kenduvila (30 kms from Bhubaneswar)
6. Jayadev batika at Khandagiri.
7. Ekamra Vana (Medicinal plant garden), around Bindu sagar lake, Bhubaenswar
8. Various parks in Bhubaneswar.
9. Aquarium at Nandan Kanan.
10. Aquarium at CIFA, Bhubaneswar
11. Aquarium, Puri (planned)

Others:

1. Sudarshan Sand art institute, Puri.
2. Raghurajpur artisan village.

Following is from a report in Indian Express.

The Tribal Museum here is up for a makeover. Located on the premises of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Research and Training Institute (SCSTRTI), the archives displays objects from almost every tribe. The institute is the only government-run tribal museum in the State and  attracts hundreds of visitors from abroad each year. A few years back, it was identified as the best among the 21 tribal museums in India by Unesco.

 Apart from the existing five galleries in the Museum that houses ornaments, paintings, photographs, hunting tools, agriculture implements, musical instruments and Dokra items,  the authorities are setting up another Primitive Tribal Group (PTG) gallery on the institute’s 18 acre campus. Construction of this gallery is underway and after completion, it would adorn artefacts related to 13 PTGs in the State.  Plans have also been drawn up to rope in tribal artisans and use the institute premises as a live museum-cum-platform where tribal artisans would get the chance to display and sell their products. This apart, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has sanctioned ` 40 lakh for beautification of the Museum this year that would entail landscaping, construction of pathways and plantation of trees like Sal, Mohul, Bamboo … "… The land behind the five hutments within the Museum will be used for setting up small forests that are typical to a tribal habitation,” said Museum in-charge Trilochan Sahoo, adding stone statues of tribal deities will also be installed. Besides, touchscreen kiosks will be set up in each of the existing five galleries where short films on tribal livelihood will be screened for interested tourists. The Tribal Museum has around 2,247 tribal artefacts, 34 items of textiles of 10 tribes and 927 ornaments of 25 tribes. The five huts within the premises are of Santal, Juang, Gadaba, Saora and Kondh tribes.

Tribal Dance Festival

The three-day Tribal Dance Festival will  be organised this year by the SC & ST Development Department from December 12. … every day during the festival, five tribal dances will be showcased and this time, tribals from Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh have been invited to perform besides the those from the State.

Update: Following is from a report in Business Standard.

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

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

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

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

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

Following is from a report in Business Standard.

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

The investments have made four minor port developers- Dhamara Port Company Ltd (DPCL), Gopalpur Port Ltd (GPL), Creative Port Development Ltd and Navayug Engineering Ltd from 2002-03 up to the end of September this year. …

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How has SER messed up in Odisha?

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



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



• etc.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The above is a good idea.

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

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

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

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

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