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Following is an excerpt from a Pioneer report on this.

The State Culture Department on Wednesday decided to construct a theatre hall and an auditorium here, said an official of the department. …

… Rabindra Mandap and Bhanja Kala Mandap are the two available platforms in the city to facilitate staging of dramas and theaters. …

Noteworthy that in 1988 theaters were being staged for five days in a week in the city and the revenue generated from it was shared between the Government and the theatre house. But, the trend came to a halt in 1992.

In order to revive the professional theatre houses like Utkal Rangamanch Trust, the State Government in1997 fixed the responsibility on Bhanja Kala Mandap.

Now, it has been possibly decided to construct a theatre hall in the premises of Guru Kelu Charan Mohapatra Odissi Research Centre. Once constructed, the hall would at a time accommodate 350 persons. It is proposed to be built on the architect fashion of Pruthwi theatre hall in Mumbai. The estimated cost of the proposed hall is Rs 3 crore.

Besides, an auditorium with the capacity of 1,000 seats would constructed at Sainik School and the estimated cost of the auditorium is Rs 12 crore. For this purpose four acres of land have been earmarked. It will be built in the line of Rabindra Mandap, said the officer.

Following is an excerpt from a New Indian Express report on this.

Hotel Hindustan International Group announced its arrival in the city with HHI Bhubaneswar having 104 luxury rooms in four different categories, a spa, banquet, dedicated swimming pool and a lawn over a sprawling 11,000 sq ft.

The star hotel which promises to provide quality services is looking to tap the ever-growing business class travellers from across India and abroad. For a start, each room will have plasma TVs, Wi-Fi connectivity and toilets with four compartments besides other amenities.

The hotel, at Kharvela Nagar where once another such property stood, has seen an investment of Rs 50 crore and boasts of a total makeover.

It has a dedicated “kebab centre” called “Kebaabs Unlimited”, a 24-hour multi-cuisine restaurant “Flavours”, “The Lounge Bar” besides business centre facility. Underground, a party floor, will soon add to the charm. HHI Bhubaneswar is the group’s third unit …

Jaiswal said that the group was planning a beach resort at Puri and is in talks with the Orissa Government for this.

Following are excerpts from a report in the New Indian Express.

Bhubaneswar: … L V Prasad Eye Institute here on Wednesday opened three new specialised eye centres. They are ‘Centre for diabetic eye disease,’ ‘Centre for sight enhancement’ and ‘Eye trauma centre.’

… The ‘Centre for diabetic eye disease’ would play a critical role in attending to diabetic patients suffering from visual disability. It is estimated that about 5.7 million people in India alone suffer from ‘diabetic retinopathy.’

It is preventable and can be treated. All that a diabetic individual needs to do is consult a physician in such centre for annual retinal examination and early detection of diabetic retinopathy. Such a step would significantly reduce the risk of visual loss in diabetic individuals.

National Thermal Power Corporation has donated about Rs 2 crore for setting up the three centres. The ‘Centre for sight enhancement’, similarly, promises quality treatment for children suffering from low vision. Estimate suggests that about 2.70 lakh children in India suffer from this defect.

In fact, congenital conditions such as ‘hereditary macular degeneration,’ ‘congenital glaucoma’ and ‘congenital eye’ anomalies account for the majority of visual impairment seen in children.

With the opening of the ‘Eye trauma centre’, the hospital aims to provide a comprehensive one stop care to patients with eye injury. Over a period of time, the institute plans to extend this to a 24X7 service, as in most of the accident cases, one needs immediate treatment to salvage the vision.

On the occasion, L V Prasad Eye Institute director Dr T P Das said the institute is contemplating to set up a school for eye care professionals in the next five years.

The institute provides 25 percent of outpatient services and 40 percent surgeries free of cost.

Following is an excerpt from a New Indian Express report on this.

Expanding its business portfolio, the Kolkata-based Saraf Group, promoters of Forum Mart shopping malls, has now decided to set up a titanium plant at Chhatrapur in Ganjam district.

The plant will be set up over 600 acres of land at an investment of Rs 2,000 crore in collaboration with the Russian Government. Production is likely to start by 2009- end.

This was disclosed by Saraf Group chairman S M Shroff while talking to mediapersons here on Tuesday. He said the project had received approval of the State Government and an MoU would be signed soon. The company had already acquired 200 acres.

He also announced setting up of two more shopping malls in the State, buoyed by the success of Forum Mart here. Both the malls – to come up in the Capital city and in Berhampur, would also have four-screen multiplex. The projects are likely to be completed by 2009-end.

This has been reported in Tathya.in, Kalinga Times, and Odisha.in so far. Odisha. in has the two letters.

• Letter to the PM
• Letter to the CM

We appeal to the readers with interest in Orissa to contact their local organization (Outside Orissa, the local Orissa/Oriya/Kalinga organization) and through them send a similar letter to the PM and CM at the earliest. The planning commission has been asked by the PM on September 14th to make the location decisions in two months. So time is running out on this.

Following are excerpts from a New Indian Express report.

Work on the Genetech City, the proposed bio-technology park at Andharua, on the outskirts of the city, will start from December if things go as per schedule.

The bio-technology park will be developed in PPP mode through competitive bidding route and the Science and Technology Department has invited tenders from private firms for development of the park on 54 acres provided by the State Government.

Eight developers – Akruti Nirman Limited, Mumbai, Eldeco Infrastructure and Properties Limited, New Delhi, Bharat Biotech Infrastructure, Hyderabad, TCG Urban Infrastructure and Holding Ltd, Mumbai, Ambience Developers and Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, Bhubaneswar Entertainment World Developers, Indore, Ramkey Infrastructure Ltd, Hyderabad and Unitech Limited, Kolkata have bided for the project.

The bidders have been asked to make their presentation to the Government on the project and bid selection will be completed by the end of this month, official sources said.

While 25 acres of the Genetech City will be used as bio-technology and pharmaceutical corridor, an information technology centre will be developed on another 15 acres. A bio-tech incubator centre will be developed on an area of 10 acres, sources said. IDCO has been entrusted with the job of infrastructure development of the park.

Update: The Orissa government tourism home page has a link to the list of tourist spots in Orissa.

In 2002-03 Raghurajpur (in Puri district) was the first village to be put in this list. This was followed by Pipli (in Khordha district) in 2004-05 and Khiching (in Mayurbhanj district) in 2005-06. The four new villages that are being added are Hirapur (in Khordha district), Barapali (in Baragarh district), Padmanavapur (in Ganjam district) and Deolajhari (in Angul district). Hirapur is famous for the 64 Yogini temple and the villages around it also make a lot of bronze utensils and artifacts. Barapali is famous for Pata Sarees – Sambalpuri style, while Padmanavapur is also famous for Pata Sarees – albeit of a different style. Deolajhari is near a waterfall. Following is Dharitri’s report on this.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Statesman on this.

Care Hospital today announced its plans to commission a 100-bed multi-specialised Aditya Care Hospital located near Municipal Kalyan Mandap at Chandrasekharpur.
… The Group will be investing around Rs 15 crores in the project and the facility will be scaled up to 300 beds over the next two years with an additional investment of Rs 50 crores.

The Bhubaneswar centre will be equipped to handle comprehensive cardiac services, including catheterisation procedures and cardiac surgeries. The focus will also be on gastroenterology, laparoscopic/gastro surgery; nephrology and urology; neurosurgery along with critical care and trauma care. For the first time in Orissa, a team of eight cardiologists will be attending to the needs of patients at the Aditya Care Hospital.

Talking to reporters here yesterday Dr Veeraprasad, Chief Operating Officer, Care Hospitals said, “… Nearly 20 full-time professionals will provide comprehensive medical services in a unique concept of teams and the unit will be networked to support secondary and primary health care units in the state.’’

Medical facilities for ex-servicement in Orissa are currently available at INS Chilka, INHS Nivarini, Army AD College Gopalpur and the three ECHS Polyclinics at Bhubaneswar, Berhampur and Balasore.

As per a report in Pioneer, six more ECHS Polyclinics would be shortly inaugurated at Sambalpur. Dhenkanal, Angul, Puri, Bhawanipatna and Sundargarh.

The orissa.gov.in site has a page on PPP (private-public partnership) which contains the Orissa draft PPP policy and a list of projects in Orissa planned to be funded through PPP. Following are excerpts from a recent report in Telegraph.

The Orissa government is planning to invest Rs 125,000 crore in 36 infrastructure projects to be taken up under the private-public-partnership programme.

…Under the programme, the state government will leverage its financial resources with that of the Centre, to prepare a shelf of projects. These will be taken forward through a transparent selection process. There will also be viability gap funding, if the projects are initially loss-making.

The policy will also create Orissa Infrastructure Development Fund with a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore. Projects that are part of the programme include roads, bridges, ports and harbours, airports, airstrips, inland container depots, industrial parks, special economic zones and townships.

“We have already entered into agreements with IL&FS and PricewaterhouseCoopers, who will be the consultants for these projects. A few more will be empanelled soon,” said Parag Gupta, special secretary of the state secretariat’s public-private-partnership cell. …

Sources said IL&FS was picked as a consultant because of its joint venture with state-run Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation for the Bhubaneswar Integrated Road Network project. PwC is also a consultant for several road projects. The state has also signed an agreement with the Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (IDFC) in this regard. IDFC is funding some projects in association with Nabard.

“Two more consultants, including Ernst and Young and another Calcutta-based firm, will be enrolled soon,” the sources said.

The empanelled agencies will help identify projects that need to be taken up, prepare pre-feasibility and detailed project reports. They will then hand the reports over to respective departments.

Some of the projects being taken up are the Capital Region Ring Road, to span 98km, and the Bhubaneswar-Paradip Road, a 90km stretch. Each of the projects will cost around Rs 700 crore. They will be executed by the state public works department.

Other projects include sector-specific infotech SEZs, which will cost around Rs 352 crore and an IT & corporate tower in Bhubaneswar to be set up for Rs 146 crore.

Following is an excerpt from a report on this.

The UK-based Dawnay Day Group plans to invest $1.2 billion to set up four-star properties in the country over the next 10 years.

It has already committed $200 million in the Indian hospitality market. …

Mandeep Lamba, managing director, Dawnay Day Hotels India, told DNA Money that an initial public offer (IPO) over the next 4-5 years could not be ruled out either.

The current commitment of $200 million is being funded through internal accruals. Already, land has been acquired in Pune, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Prospective properties are likely to come up in Chennai, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Mumbai and Kolkata.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

… Forum Projects, which now has a land bank worth over Rs 3,500 crore, is also investing big beyond Bengal. …

A mixed-use city-centre development in Adityapur across 22.5 acres with hospitals, club, cineplex, retail, residential and conferencing facilities, and a 550,000-sq ft lifestyle mall in Bhubaneswar with 1,200 car parks are the other large-format projects on the group’s 5.5 million-sq ft retail roadmap.

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.

Following is a big excerpt from Pioneer on this. (The detailed route and the various proposed stations can be found in this map.)

The inordinate delay in the construction of the Khurda – Balangir railway line has triggered severe public resentment, with people blaming the Centre for, deliberately, deferring the project.

Paucity of funds and delay in land acquisition are said to be the main factors that mar the speedy implementation of the project.

The 339 km long Khurda – Balangir railway line was sanctioned in 1994-95 and had raised the hopes of the people living in this perennially backward and neglected district. The line, which was supposed to run through Nayagarh, Phulbani, Boudh and Sonepur was expected to provide an impetus to the growth of the district.

The estimated cost of the project was Rs 354 crore initially but now the cost has escalated to Rs700 crore. As many as 17 railway stations, 441 bridges, 11 tunnels and 126 level-crossings were to be constructed as part of the project.

The Railway Ministry made a budgetary allocation of Rs15.38 crore in 2004-05 for the project and has this year earmarked Rs 10 crore, following which work on a 22-km stretch from Khurda was undertaken.

But no public representative of the area is happy with the pace of the project. Phulbani MP Sugriba Singh had also raised the issue in the Parliament sometime ago. Singh had also written a letter to Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, alleging that even one-tenth of the project’s total budget had not been released so far.

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 is an excerpt from a Pioneer report

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday laid the foundation stone of the Semiconductor Technology Innovation Centre. The centre will be the first of its kind in the country and will mark the beginning of a new era in the development of the IT Industry in Orissa.

Silicon Park will be established in Infocity SEZ with total project outlay of Rs 80 crore over a period of five years. The centre would provide employment opportunities to 1,600 software professionals …

Laying the foundation stone, Patnaik said the centre would take up chip design, embedded software development for products used in IT, Telecommunication and emerging technologies. It will also provide an entrepreneurial business environment and a semiconductor product eco-system.

“My Government is actively considering declaring Electronics and hardware manufacturing as a thrust sector,” he said, adding that the State Government is pursuing an ambitious target of achieving one billion US dollar in software export from the State by 2012.

Chairman of the STG Pvt Ltd M Chandrasekhar Reddy and eminent scientist from Silicon Valley Damodar Reddy were present on the occasion.

The report in New Indian Express on the same event has the following extra information.

The Chief Minister announced that the State Government will set up three more IT special economic zones (SEZs) in the State.

One of them, the knowledge industry township, will be set up jointly with the Union Urban Development Ministry and NASSCOM while the second one will be established by DLF.

While the above report mentions about three new SEZ’s, it only talks about two. The following from Samaja mentions that the third one will be a BPO based SEZ.