Following are some excerpts from that report.

… Makara Dehuri’s been steadily losing weight. The 35-year-old miner from Ostpala village doesn’t know what’s wrong with him.

Over 2 lakh people in Sukinda suffer from some form of hexavalent chromium poisoning because of the untreated water discharged by the mines into the Brahmani River.

Sukinda contains one largest open cast chromite ore mines in the world. As much as 60 percent of drinking water here is poisoned.

“Drinking water is a major problem for us. If we tell our boss he will suspend us from our job,” says a villager in Orissa, Makara Dehuri.

The recent study has chosen these places for the severity of its toxins, its impact on human health and the extent of damage caused. …

Somebody should file a PIL or sue the government and the mining industry in Sukinda.

Following up on the ad that appeared in Samaja, there have been several reports with more details. Following are excerpts from a New Indian Express report.

The airline will operate eight-seater aircraft from the Capital City to places like Barbil, Keonjhar, Jharsuguda, Jeypore, Sambalpur and Rayagada.

Ticket fare to Barbil would cost around Rs 5000 and to Jeypore Rs 7000. For corporate flyers and individuals buying to and fro tickets, a 40 percent discount can be availed of as an introductory offer.

General Manager (operations) Sumit Mukherjee said, those buying one-way ticket would also be given a 30 percent concession. Talking to mediapersons here, he said, the airline had already positioned one Islander BN2T turboprop aircraft capable of short takeoff and landing on these routes.

The travelling time would vary from 50 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes. Services would run on all days expect Sundays. A Bell 206 BIII helicopter with four seats would be introduced for charter service, he said. Sky Airways is a division of New Delhi-based GSI Pvt. Ltd and is headquartered in Kolkata.

… “We will introduce two aircraft to these places with a seating capacity for 19 passengers before the end of the current year.”

Another news item mentioned that they plan to fly from such towns to Kolkata in the future.

Update: The PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=33543 is a Rajya Sabha answer on this topic.

Following are excerpts from a Times of India report.

The Steel Authority of India (SAIL) on Wednesday unveiled plans to expand and modernise the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) with an investment of Rs 7,800 crore. RSP, which presently has a capacity of 2.2 million tonnes per annum, would be converted into a four MTPA facility by June, 2010. Its production would be further enhanced to eight MTPA by 2019-20, said company’s director (personnel and raw materials) G Ojha here. According to Ojha, RSP’s expansion is part of SAIL’s plan to invest Rs 49,000 crore in its different units and mines within the next three to three-and-half years. … Ojha said that post-expansion, SAIL’s production capacity would touch 26 MTPA of hot metal compared to its existing capacity of 14.6 MTPA. This would mean 23 MTPA of saleable steel," he informed. The company also intends to spend a substantial sum of money to improve its mining operations, including over Rs 1,100 crore in Orissa, he added. Regarding SAIL’s recent MoU with South Korean company Posco, the director said, "We want to indulge in exchange of technology and people. "We also plan collaboration in research and development activities and accordingly, an eight-member team, comprising four from each company, has been formed. This is just the beginning," he said. He allayed fears that the MoU could lead to SAIL’s privatisation and clarified that the pact was not legally enforceable and just an understanding for collaboration. … The SAIL director also reiterated the company’s interest to takeover the Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL) in Orissa’s Jajpur district and said, IDBI, as an independent valuer, has already assessed the company’s worth. "In case the stakeholders (MMTC and Orissa government) have any reservations, then we are ready for further parleys. But, ideally, the valuers version should be honoured," he said.

Following is an excerpt from a Telegraph report.

Sukinda valley in Orissa�s Jajpur is one of the most polluted places in the world, according to a report by the US-based Blacksmith Institute.

The institute provides solutions to pollution-related problems.

From India, Sukinda has ranked fourth and Vapi, a 400km industrial belt in Gujarat, is fifth on the list of 10 most polluted places.

The valley, about 140km from here, is spread across Dhenkanal and Jajpur districts and has the largest chrome ore deposit in the country — 97 per cent of India�s reserves. Mining is done by the opencast method.

According to the report, �12 mines continue to operate without any environmental management plans and over 30 million tonnes of waste rock are spread over the surrounding areas. The mines discharge untreated water into the river. This area is also flood-prone, resulting in further contamination of the waterways.�

The problem is �beyond the means of the state to solve�.

Environmentalists said the report is damning evidence of the impact rampant mining has on Orissa.

… However, chairman of Orissa State Pollution Control Board L.N. Patnaik described the report as �silly�. �I see a lot of personal agenda behind the report. It is a design to stop mining activities. If there is mining, there would be some air pollution. But to say that Sukinda is one of worst polluted places in the world is ridiculous,� he said.

The comment by OSPC Board Chairman Mr. Patnaik is outrageous. He should talk about what steps his organization is taking, if any, to minimize pollution. Instead of saying that he talks about personal agenda. Does that mean OSPC is not taking any steps to reduce pollution?

Following is a bit of information on Sky Airways:

• A report in Telegraph mentions the following:

… Sky Airways (backed by the M.L. Agarwal group, with business interests in Orissa�s mining and steel sectors) …

Following is an excerpt from a Pragativadi report.

The state government has decided to set up seven seeds centre in the state to enable the farmers to avail quality seeds without further delay.

According to official sources, the centres would come up at Ganjam, Angul, Sundargarh, Kalahandi, Balasore Jajpur and Bhubaneswar.

With this, the total seed centres in the state would go up to nine with two such centres that have been already set up at Rayagada and Bargarh.

The two centres provide certificates on the certified seeds to the farmers.
Apart from this, another centre functioning at Bhubaneswar has been entrusted with checking the quality of seeds.

The state government has also decided to impart training to the farmers about the use of modern cultivation for which it is now contemplating on roping in the National Farmer Extension Management Organisations.

The following ad in Samaja gives highlights of two recently launched schemes in agriculture:

• National Food Security Mission (NFSM)
  • The 15 districts in Orissa covered under the NFSM-Rice scheme (as given in page 40 of the above document) are Angul, Balangir, Boudha, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi, Keonjhar, Malkangiri, Nawapara, Nawarangpur, Nayagarh, Phulbani, and Sundargarh.
  • The 10 districts in Orissa covered under the NFSM-Pulse scheme (as given in page 43 of the above document) are Balangir, Baragarh, Cuttack, Ganjam, Kalahandi, Keonjhar, Khurda, Nayagarh, Puri, Rayagada.
• Rashtriya Krishi Vikash Yojana (RKVY)

Following are excerpts from a Telegraph report.

The Indian company, which became the sixth largest steel maker after buying Corus of the UK in January, plans to start construction work on its proposed 6-million-tonne integrated steel plant at Kalinganagar in November. …

Problems over land acquisition and mining leases have slowed progress on the Tata and Posco projects. Mittal’s Jharkhand project is facing the same predicament.

Tata Steel managing director B. Muthuraman, who met chief minister Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneswar on Thursday evening, said the company had sought mining leases for iron ore and expected to get them soon. Corus chief executive officer Philippe Varin accompanied Muthuraman.

The challenge before Tata Steel is now to relocate the families living on the land where the plant will come up. So far 620 of 1,200 families have been shifted. Tata Steel will start construction once another 200 families are relocated.

Varin said Corus and Tata Steel would be working together to set up the Kalinganagar plant and the best technology would be used. The first phase would call for Rs 6,000-crore investment, while the total project would cost Rs 15,000 crore.

The company was allocated 2,000 acres for the plant at Kalinganagar. The Orissa government is to recommend Tata Steel’s case for a mining lease after 25 per cent of the order for the plant and machinery is placed. Sources said the company had started placing orders worth Rs 4,500 crore for a blast furnace, sinter plant and coke oven unit.

The company wants iron ore mining leases at Mankadanacha and Baliapal to be restored. They were scrapped after the company failed to set up a steel plant in Gopalpur in the nineties.

State steel and mines secretary U. P. Singh said the government would consider Tata Steel’s application for mining lease according to procedures. …

The Orissa plant is a building block for Tata Steel’s integration with Corus. It will make primary steel here which will be sent to Corus’s west European finishing mills.

Following is from a PIB.

The Government accorded approval for undertaking six laning of 6,500 km of National Highways comprising 5,700 km of Golden Quadrilateral and balance 800 km on other sections, under National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase-V.    As per the approved implementation mechanism for NHDP Phase-V, stretches of 100 km or more that have been completed at least two years ago and contractual actions on previous contracts have been completed, are being included in the year-wise programme.   Where the distance between two cities is less than 100 km, such stretches are also being included as exception cases.   Cost per km has been estimated as Rs. 6.34 crore. 

            List of proposed stretches of National Highways in different states under NHDP Phase-V is given below:

SIX LANING OF NATIONAL HIGHWAYS

  Feasibility report for seven stretches have been completed by the technical consultants and detailed is given below: 

STATUS OF FEASIBILITY REPORT FOR SEVEN STRETCHES UNDER NHDP PHASE-V.

 Total 203 firms have applied for pre-qualification for eight stretches under NHDP Phase-V.

            NHDP Phase-V is scheduled for completion by December, 2012.   Estimated civil construction cost for Gurgaon-Kotputli-Jaipur of 225 km is Rs. 1517 crores.  The likely time period for completion is 30 months from the appointed date.

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.

Six laning of 6,500 km of National Highways comprising 5,700 km of Golden      Quadrilateral and 800 km of other sections on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis following, Design, Build, Finance and Operate (DBFO) pattern has been approved at an estimated cost of Rs.41, 210 crore under National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase-V, scheduled for completion by December 2012. List of sections of National Highways in different states is given below:

SIX LANING OF NATIONAL HIGHWAYS

The following article from Samaja explains why people in Orissa (and India) do not believe companies’ promises. If what the article says is true it is shameful on the part of Tatas to behave that way.

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 excerpts from an Economic Times report.

Siemens Ltd on Friday said it has bagged an order from Jindal Stainless (JSL) to carry out installation related work for latter’s greenfield plant in Orissa.

The company has bagged the order along with Siemens VAI, a division of the Siemens Group Industrial Solutions and Services (I&S), Siemens Ltd said in a communique to the BSE. However, it did not divulge any financial details.

“It (the order) was bagged on the basis of our ability to come up with a fully integrated solution and our track record in executing project in the metals sector,” Siemens Ltd Executive Vice-President (Industrial Services and Solutions Division) N Sivasubramanian said.

As per the contract, Siemens would undertake plant layout for the hot-strip mill and equip it with latest tools. Production is scheduled to start in 2009.

JSL already has an operating plant at Hisar in Haryana and the new plant would be set up at Kainganagar Durubi Duburi in Orissa as part of its expansion plans.

Siemens would also provide customer training, monitor installation of all the components and systems as well as commission the installation, including fine adjustment of the technological models and control systems. The plant would be designed to produce 1.6 million tons of stainless steel strips in the first phase, Siemens added.

The plan for this was mentioned earlier. Following are excerpts from an Economic Times report.

Visa Steel on Friday inked a joint venture agreement with China’s Baosteel Trading and VISA Comtrade of Switzerland for setting up a 1 lakh tonne-per-annum ferro chrome plant in Orissa at a capital outlay of Rs 260 crore.

The JV company, VISA BAO, will be a subsidiary of VISA Steel which will hold a 51% stake. Baosteel Trading and VISA Comtrade will hold 35% and 14% stakes, respectively.  …

Following are excerpts from an azom.com report.

Outotec has been awarded a contract by Tata Steel for the design and basic engineering of an iron ore sinter plant, supply of proprietary equipment and provision of supervisory services for Tata Steel’s new Kalinganagar steel plant project in India. The contract value is around EUR 35 million.

… Outotec’s delivery is part of the first phase of the project and it will be the largest iron ore sinter plant in India to date.

The local portion of the sinter plant project will be executed by Larsen & Toubro Ltd, …

Following is Dharitri’s report on this.