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Telegraph reports that AMRI hospital plans to set up a state of the art hospital in Bhubaneswar. Following are excerpts of that report.

AMRI Hospitals today unveiled its ambitious expansion plan to set up four state-of-the-art hospitals in four state capitals — Bhubaneswar, Ranchi, Raipur and Patna.

Each of the four hospitals will be set up with an initial investment of over Rs 110 crore, with room for future expansion. …

AMRI Hospitals, a joint venture between Emami and Shrachi group of industries, is venturing out of Calcutta for the first time.

… Aditya Agarwal, director, told The Telegraph that the first of the four hospitals will come up at Bhubaneswar.

The hospital will come up at Khandagiri Square, a prime location in Bhubaneswar and will have 300 beds initially.

“It will come up on 5 acres. Initially, it will be a five storey affair, but we have plans and enough room for further expansion,” Agarwal said and added that the hospital at Bhubaneswar is expected to start operation by 2009.

It will have, apart from facilities available at any multi-speciality hospital of international standard, super-speciality thrust on cardiology, orthopaedics and neurology, Agarwal claimed.

“Our hospital in Bhubaneswar will have emergency and outdoor facilities. We will deploy most sophisticated equipment and staff, including doctors, there. It will also have state-of-the-art ICCU, ITU and NITU and life-support systems,” the director informed.

Apart from giving people access to ‘healthcare facilities of international standard’, the hospital will also generate a lot of job opportunities, he claimed.

“The hospital in Bhubaneswar will initially have some 1,000 employees, including medical, para-medical and non-medical staff. The first preference will obviously be to recruit local people. …

Among other facilities, the hospital will have a parking bay, cafeterias and playground to mention only a few standard facilities available in any major hospital, he said.

“We have earmarked an estimated Rs 120 crore on this hospital. However, more investment will be made according to the requirement for future expansion.”

“The foundation laying ceremony at Bhubaneswar will be held on July 14. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik, finance minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadai, industry minister Biswabhusan Harichandan, minister of works and housing A.U. Singh Deo and health minister Duryodhan Majhi will be present on the occasion,” Agarwal informed. …

Agarwal added that AMRI Hospitals, a joint venture between Emami and Sharachi groups, has plans to establish at least one medical college in one of the four state capitals.

“Talks in that direction are on. We also plan to have some specialised medical and nursing training facilities. A decision on this matter will be taken soon,” he declared.

(Thanks to Jibanendra babu and Orissa Today google group for pointer to this report.)

Earlier news mentioned about IBM expanding to or eying various tier 2 cities including Bhubaneswar. Economic Times now reports that the center in Bhubaneswar will be a development center. Following are excerpts from that report.

IT major IBM will soon open its third development centre in Orissa’s capital city. …

Sources said TCS, Infosys and Satyam already had their centres here while Wipro, Mindtree and Hexaware were expected to decide on their plan soon. Genpact had already committed to invest at Infocity-1, the state government’s IT cluster. …

The IBM team, on its part, assured the state government that they would provide technical know-how for Orissa’s ongoing e-governance programme.

Brain has also assured Patnaik that IBM would help the government to develop the proposed Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in Bhubaneswar.

IBM already has two centres, one in Chennai and another in Coimbatore, the sources added.

Statesman reports on an IBM Center in Bhubaneswar. Following is an excerpt.

IBM is likely to establish a development centre in Bhubaneswar. A release issued by the CMO here said that indications to this effect were given by Mr Stephen W Braim, the vice-president, IBM Asia Pacific, today. Mr Braim met chief minister Mr Naveen Patnaik and discussed IT development and human resource development to meet the growing demand of such professionals. IBM has two development centres in the country and the one proposed to come up in Bhubaneswar will be its third centre, said the release.

New Indian Express reports on the water supply situation in Bhubaneswar. Following are some excerpts.

For a population of 8 lakh, the Capital city has just 52,000 connections each catering to a family of five to six persons. …

Not only does coverage need keep pace with expansion, there is an increasing necessity to modernise the entire system. Realising the need, both Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) are busy chalking out a plan.

The proposal is to be placed for consideration under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (NURM).

Currently, Bhubaneswar meets its demand mostly from Kuakhai river, while the infrastructure for water treatment and distribution have come up in different phases. Mahanadi too contributes substantially for the city’s requirements.

As of now, the existing supply system fully covers 17 wards (out of 47) with pipe-water supply while another 26 wards are partially covered. The rest are without any cover.

A study carried out on the system reveals that supply is intermittent, while pipelines have shrunk. The total length of pipelines – main and distribution – are about 900 km in length.

However, since most of these were laid in 1950s and 1960s, they throw up problems. While density of population has increased, the same has rendered existing supply lines inadequate.

This also explains why water distribution has not been uniform – quantity as well as pressure wise. Moreover, main transmission lines are now old and lead contamination with sewerage lines which has become a cause of concern.

Similarly, intake infrastructure, water treatment plants and pump houses are now old and need renovation. The city has seven water treatment plants built during the last four decades.

Statistics available with PHED says seven treatment plants were built in 1954, 1960, 1968, 1974, 1975, 1987 and 1996 which speaks volumes about the need to upgrade and replace them.

Of the seven plants, four are for Kuakhai with total capacity of 19.5 million gallons for day (MGD), while the two for Daya can treat 3 MGD water.

It is the Mundali Water Works which has the biggest capacity of MGD. It was built in 1996.

Another problem with the locations and capacities of storage reservoirs. In the city, there are 87 underground and over ground reservoirs while there are another 46 elevated service tanks.

The headache for these storage points is that they are not integrated.

The proposed modernisation plan will take into account the revenue model as user charges are not fixed as per consumption level.

This is from a document regarding the vision 2030 plan for Bhubaneswar that has been prepared by IIT Kharagpur.

• Zones for multiplex, Retail-malls and theme parks for outdoor recreation
• Film city development with ample natural resources and back up from Orissa film industry with necessary infrastructure
• Logistic Hub for the prime urban centers
• Textile parks with cottages and medium scale industries for local specialized weaving art.
• Development of another major Railway Station, to cater to the trains for Western Orissa
• Circular Trains for cheaper mass transportation within urban areas
• Upgrading the existing Airport for tourists and higher officials for government and private sectors in the capital city
• Multi level Freeways for better accessibility with all roadside modern facilities ( Private Sector participation)
• World Class Club-towns
• Flood management plan for Cuttack with innovative technology (Venice Model)
• Garland Lake System to develop and protect the water bodies in the region
• Major organized open spaces like, urban squares, ceremonial / recreational grounds, and permanent fair grounds as image developers
• Health city/ Education city/ Software parks etc (new urban districts)
• Waterfront development with landscape conservation
• Travel Circuit (Architecture/Archeology/Religious) with facilities like “Palace on Wheels” for international and national tourists
• “Utkal Sanskriti Prangan” – A representational centre of traditional art and culture, craft,cuisine, living style, fair and facilities of Orissa at Bhubaneswar.
• Development of Traditional Art Village (Paper/Cloth/Silver/Pottery) in the line of “Arts Acre” in the peri-urban areas of Bhubaneswar
• Adventure tourism for Reserve forest/ Nature Study camp areas for rare natural species zone
• Development of Nature Corridors –to provide a feel of flora and fauna in the urban setup
• Area development of Lingaraj temple and Bindu Sagar with new allied activities

Tathya.in reports that OTV will now have competition to its cable business. Following are excerpts of that report.

Wire and Wireless India Limited (WWIL and Ushodaya Enterprises Private Limited (UEPL), which controls popular ETV joined hands to float Variety Entertainment Private Limited (VEPL) …

VEPL, which has set up the state of the art control rooms in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela promises to provide better cable services in the cities of Orissa.

Announcing the launching of the services Deepak Chandnani, CEO WWIL, said that it will provide 87 channels of national and regional interest to the viewers in Orissa.

He said the services will be expanded in near future to provide digital services including triple play – voice, video and data under the aegis of “GalaxZee” by digitalization of signals.

Chandnani said GalaxZee will provide crystal clear picture, digital audio and video quality.

More number of channels will be added with multilingual facility, said he.

Provision for e-education, e-commerce gamming and video on demand facilities will be given in near future, said Chandnani.

Arvinda Mohan, Executive Director, WWIL said that the cable network service in Orissa depends on the court’s verdict.

Business standard reports that SBI has started one more regional business unit in Bhubaneswar. Following are some excerpts.

As a part of the decentralisation process and to provide prompt and qualitative service to the customer, the State Bank of India (SBI) has set up one more regional business office in Orissa. With this the total regional business office of the bank has reached five in the state.

The new regional office will function under the Bhubaneswar zonal office of the bank. …

The new regional office will cover 6 branches in the Khurda district and eight branches of Nayagarh district along with 16 branches of the Bhubaneswar city.

Though to start with the bank will have 30 branches and 24 ATMs under its jurisdiction , two more branches are likely to be opened in that area taking the total to 32. While 16 branches are located in urban areas, 5 branches are located in semi-urban areas. Besides, 9 branches are located in rural areas.

Significantly, 23 branches out of these 30 branches have Core Banking Solutions (CBS) facility.

The new region has a deposit of Rs.748.55 crore and advance of Rs.569.39 crore as on May 2007. The decision to set up the fifth regional office is significant as SBI is the lead bank in both Khurda and Nayagarh districts.

Besides, the bank has initiated measures to implement financial inclusion in Nayagarh district. SBI has a presence at every nook and corner of the state and its branches are financial bigbazars, selling all the products under one roof.

The bank has 502 branches at present and 60 percent of the branches are located in rural areas. Subject to Reserve Banks permission, the bank intended to open 40 more branches this fiscal. SBI has taken several measures to improve customer care through business process re-engineering.

Besides, it is involved in various social activities of the state. …

SBI is the lead bank in 19 districts of the state.

Various news reports mention that CARE hospital plans to open a 100 bed hospital in Bhubaneswar in July.

New Indian Express reports the starting of the BPO company Medwrite in Bhubaneswar. Following is an excerpt from that report.

MedWrite India, a Hyderabad based healthcare business process outsourcing (BPO) firm, launched its city operations on Wednesday.

The state-of-the-art centre will engage 200 trained professionals. Addressing mediapersons, chief executive officer Srinivas Rao said plans are afoot to raise the head-count to 500 professionals by the fall of 2008.

It handles medical billing and transcription services to a vast number of hospitals, clinics and physicians across the United States.

The firm would shortly be launching a free training programme for undergraduates and graduates to cater to the growing needs of skilled manpower in the industry. MedWrite is chosen as the international partner of MedQuist, a leading medical transcription company in the US …

• Some good news on national institutes front
• Letter to SAC-PM on science magnet schools
• XIMB’s forway into satellite based management programs
• Orissa among the bottom in terms of its universities’ performance in civil service exams
• Update on IIIT Bhubaneswar
• Samaja on vocational courses
• Some excerpts from the PM’s address with comments and questions from me
• PM’s address at the 150th anniversary of University of Mumbai: 30 new Central universities to be established
• 2004 data on Orissa JEE and Orissa engineering colleges: can’t understand it completely
• Sambada has opened a school of mass communication and culture through its charitable trust
• RMRC Bhubaneswar will have facility for diagnosis of viral infections
• Sambada: BJD MP Braja Tripathy writes to PM on KBK Central University
• Which University to recommend for central university status?
• Orissa JEE has released additional rankings
• Rejoinder to Mr. Jairam Ramesh’s comments in Bhubaneswar on the IIT Orissa issue
• Which option is better IISER, NIT or IIST and why?
• IIT JEE 2007 Counseling brochure
• Plus two science colleges in Bhubaneswar-Cuttack area
• New Indian Express: Our government will fight for central varsity – Naveen
• Dharitri Editorial: Kendrara ghaitapania (Spousal abuse by center)
• Statesman: Naveen’s missive on varsity in KBK region
• New Indian Express: Orissa feels rejected once again
• Pioneer: Naveen shoots off letter to PM over central varisty in KBK
• Ganjam district has the maximum number of out-of-school students in Orissa
• Higher education vision document in the offing
• Orissatv.com: Center’s decision to shift proposed tribal university to Madhya Pradesh objected – CM says it is another example of center’s negligence
• Statesman: CM demands varisty in KBK region
• Sambada: After IIT Central University in KBK is also out of hand
• Fax campaign against repeated injustice by MHRD
• Dharitri: Hopes dashed on KBK Central University
• Pioneer: Arjun hijacks plans for KBK varisty
• Ex and founding VC of BPUT Prof. Damodar Acharya will be IIT Kharagpur director from July 2007
• Indira Gandhi National Tribal University in Madhya Pradesh – Orissa had proposed a similar university in KBK
• Orissa JEE result is out: some links

Financial Express reports the establishment of a new multi-specialty hospital in Bhubaneswar. Following are excerpts of that report.

The Orissa-based Ayush Hospital & Trauma Care Pvt Ltd (AHTC) is setting up a multi-speciality hospital in Bhubaneswar with an investment of Rs 13.5 crore.

“The hospital is ready and it will be thrown open for patients from the first week of July 2007”, the founder director of the hospital, Dr Ashok Acharya, told FE. …

Besides the cardiac facilities, the hospital will have to its credit an MRI unit and a critical care ambulance that can bring critical patients from any corner of the state.

A one year old baby, named Kalinga, was abandoned by its parents and relatives; after 41 days she was taken back by them. This happened in the outskirts of Bhubaneswar. Should not we be outraged by the fact that the baby was abandoned in the first place? Should not the parents be put in jail for abandoning their months old baby? And what has this got to do with the growth of Orissa. Read more and watch the following embedded video to find out why this is such a sweet and charming story and its happening in the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, makes Bhubaneswar an attractive place.

You see Kalinga is a baby elephant which got isolated from its herd when the herd had strayed into Bhubaneswar from the adjacent Chandaka Elephant Sanctuary. The wild life staff tried many ways for the baby elephant to be taken back by its herd, and finally yesterday a herd took it back. Although the wild life staff which fed it with lactogen is worried about its future feeding, they are extremely happy that the baby elephant was taken back to the wild.This is Bhubaneswar. A city with a similar sized elephant sanctuary just next to it. We discussed this sanctuary in earlier postings (here and here). I have never gone inside the sanctuary, but I will definitely go there in my next visit and spend some time in the Bharatpur watch tower to watch elpehants in the wild. I wonder if there is any other city in India where you have an elephant sanctuary right next to it. This aspect of Bhubaneswar is not much known. May be it should remain that way despite this posting.

Note: New Indian Express has a nice report on the forest officers attempt to reunite the lost baby elephant with its herd. Following are some excerpts.

It’s something unheard of but Kalinga which slipped into a small well after getting isolated from its main pack that strayed into an OUAT farm on May 5, finally found acceptance on Saturday from a group of 22 elephants in forests of Chandaka, on the City outskirts.

Two forest guards monitoring the calf saw how it was welcomed into folds of two herds near the watch tower of the protected area. Kalinga was allowed to roam near a water point adjoining the watch tower at Bharatpur.

The herds – in groups of four and 18 – reached the spot at 5.30 pm where a female, as if in a gesture of welcome, tugged at the calf before dragging it into the group. The rest encircled the baby and vanished into the jungle. …

The Chandaka Sanctuary officials had tried the reunion earlier but in vain. Kalinga was kept confined in a breakable enclosure near sanctuary’s entrance at Godibari but the herds would pass by it.

However, DFO Akshay Kumar Patnaik was not one to give up hope. The calf was shifted near Bharatpur watch tower on June 11 as the area is frequented by several herds because of the water point. On the first day itself, two herds came calling but Kalinga found no acceptance.

Then the calf was freed from its enclosure so as to facilitate interaction with the approaching herds. On Tuesday, three packs came across the calf and approached it but Kalinga was reluctant and returned to its base where it is fed and taken care of by the forest officials, Patnaik said.

On Saturday, Kalinga had ‘lactogen’ for lunch and what followed was nothing short of milestone in wildlife management.

But sanctuary officials are worried about Kalinga’s diet as it was on lactogen for last 41 days and could face difficulty in taking milk from its mother.

Following is a picture of Kalinga with a mature elephant trying to take it back. This did not work out. The picture is from Kalinga Times photo gallery and the photo was taken by DFO Akshaya Patnaik. But the next attempt succeeded. (CNN-IBN also has a nice video.)

There are several other charming stories associated with the Chandaka Sanctuary. Decades ago a royal Bengal tiger from the sanctuary jumped into the enclosure of another tiger in the adjoining Nandan Kanan zoo. More about this another day.

Business standard reports that the Orissa government is after Accenture and other big IT consulting companies. There is nothing concerete here except that its a policy decisions to go after these biggies with an attractive package. Following are excerpts from that report.

The Orissa government is rolling out the red carpet to get the management consulting, technology services and outsourcing firm Accenture to set up facilities in the state. …

Orissa IT minister Surya Narayan Patro said, “We have initiated discussions with Accenture.”

A top official of the Orissa IT department said, “The government would leave no stone unturned in bringing in big companies like IBM, Cognizant and Accenture to the state. Discussion were on and the government would contact Accenture.”

The Orissa government was working out a package offering excellent infrastructure to companies keen to invest in the state.

Accenture currently had 1.5 lakh employees in 49 countries with global revenues of around $18 billion, and was one of the largest computer services and software companies.

India was an integral part of Accenture’s global delivery centre (GDC) and its second largest country of operation, with branches at Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi employing 15,000 professionals in India.

The Orissa government recently allotted 1074 acres of prime land for three IT zones labelled Infocity 1 to 3. While Infocity-1 was functional, Infocity-2 and Infocity-3 were
under planning and development. TCS, Infosys and Satyam had units here while Wipro, MindTree and Hexaware were expected to decide on facilities in Bhubaneswar soon and Genpact had committed to invest at Infocity-1.

Orissa expected software exports to cross Rs 1000 crore from the 2006-07 export figure of Rs 734 crore.

IT small and medium enterprises (ITSMEs) in Orissa were working on a plan to take up software exports. Currently there were about 135 IT firms registered with the Software Technology Park of India (STPI) in Orissa.

Following is a roundup on HRD related postings at orissawatch.org.

• Foundation For Excellence (FFE) gave 264 scholarships to students from Orissa
• Orissa engineering colleges in Outlook India ranking
• NISER deadline for submitting application form is extended till June 15 2007
• Chennai B-school in Bhubaneswar and Plan for Insurance University in BBSR
• Specialized government management institutions of Orissa
• Branch changes allowed after first year at NIT Rourkela
• Status of private Medical Colleges in the State
• M.Tech and M.Arch programs in Orissa
• KIIT has approval for 100 Medical (MBBS) and 100 Dentistry (BDS) seats.
• Institutions with Nontraditional programs – a dated list
• Biju Patnaik Film and TV institute advertises for admission into its programs
• Apparently Orissa students are doing well in medical entrance exams
• Tathya: Please no politics over IIT
• Pursuing M. Ed in Orissa
• Ranking of Engineering Colleges in Orissa based on student preferences
• Nursing Schools catch on in Orissa
• TCS recruits 1100 students from Orissa engineering colleges

Pragativadi reports that the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has taken two Orissa villages under the cluster village program. These villages are Jayapur in Koraput district and Erkana in Khorda district. Following is an excerpt from that report.

... under the programme, the Commission would encourage leather and industry in Jayapur while it would boost bamboo craft in Erkana village. Stating that the Commission is providing all support to the artisans of these two villages to enable them to further sharpen their skills in their profession, she said that efforts are being taken to provide high-end technical support to these artisans. She also said that the Commission has selected 534 rural entrepreneurs to set up small scale industries. Joshi also said that KVIC has already set up 4853 small scale units in Orissa under the National Rural Employment Generation Programme while it has insured 1220 rural entrepreneurs under Janashree Bima yojana in the state.

The planned Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Choudwar metroplex will have a ring road with NH-5 consisting one part of it with the other part to be constructed. The other part will start from south of Khurda and go through Haladia, Athagarh and Nergundi (a bit south of Tangi). A detailed map of this new road is here. Inside this proposed metroplex will be the Chadaka-Dampara sanctuary. Below I give maps of Bhubaneswar area and Mumbai area to show the relative size of the Chandaka-Dampara sanctuary and the Sanjay Gandhi National Park that is part of the Mumbai metroplex. Both maps have the same resolution. Recently, there is plan to popularize the Chandaka-Dampara sanctuary among the local people. Following is an excerpt from a report in the New Indian Express.

According to divisional forest officer (DFO) and wildlife warden Akshaya Kumar Pattnaik, there are plans to popularise the various spots of the sanctuary among the nature lovers as many in the Twin City are still not aware.

The nice bamboo hut and watch tower near Deras Dam with one and two suites available respectively overlook the channels and drainage system of the water source which provides lifeline to the Mendhasal agriculture farm.

The Kumar Khunti and Ambilo watch towers also have got accommodation facility.

“Plans are on to have small wooden restsheds to accommodate the nature lovers who will come on bicycle rides and can stay overnight as practised in in the West and some well managed reserves in several parts of the country,” Pattnaik reveals.

A visitor can also have the panoramic view of Mahanadi from Mantu Hill Top and enjoy the small fall near Godabhanga Tangara in the rainy season. The caves below the fall are home to hyaenas, he adds.

Apart from wildlife, the ancient forts at Bualigarh and Chudanga can be explored which have great archaeological value, the DFO says adding an interpretation centre is on cards with a fodder demonstration centre, small herbal garden, souvenir stall and snacks parlour at Godibari entrance of the sanctuary.

Though more than 10,000 visitors visit in a year, the DFO feels the number should go up considering the charm of the jungles, especially when one can enjoy the coastal sal range from Kochila Berena watch tower.

Mumbai

New Indian Express reports Vasant Scribes coming to Bhubaneswar to provide training and employment opportunities. Following are excerpts from that report.

Leading medical transcription company in India, Vasant Scribes is set to provide training to the unemployed youth of the State to join the field even as it has commenced commercial operations from its Bhubaneswar facility at STPI here.
The company which, at present, has 35 medical transcriptionists intends to expand the facility to over 300 within one and half years. And the bulk of the staffers would be the youths who successfully complete the training.

… The company has applied for one acre of land in the Infocity and has submitted the building plans and layout to the Government.

… But in a stark departure from prevailing practices, the training would not only be imparted free of cost but the trainees would also be given a handsome stipend.
Eligibility would be Plus II pass, preferably with a science background.

… Headquartered at Hyderabad, the company employs over 500 personnel in the city.

Business Standard in an article in April listed several infrastructure related projects that Orissa is planning using PPP. Following are excerpts from that article.

… the Orissa government has lined up 18 new projects in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode entailing an investment of over Rs 6000 crore.

Of the 18 projects, 12, mostly large and medium, have already been consolidated with investments of Rs 3500 crore.

Another six projects, fairly bigger in respect to the previous ones, are under active consideration and would cover an investment of around Rs 2500 crore, according to government sources.

Source said, till date, an around Rs 5300 crore investments have already been lined up and are under implementation in the PPP module in 12 odd projects across the state.

In all the Orissa government plans to develop 30 odd projects in different sectors in the PPP module over the next two years covering an investment of over Rs 11,300 crore. …

The PPP modules currently under implementation and those under consideration cover a wide range of activities starting from port cuilding, railway line construction, road development and erection of urban clusters. …

The new projects being considered under the PPP module included development of road links in the Capital Region Ring Road, the Bhubaneswar-Paradip Road, the Suakati-Dubuna Road and the Tensa-Barsuan-Lahunipada Road.

These would entail a primary investment of Rs 1547 crore for the development of 279 kilometres of road, including a four-laning of the first one.

Other than this there would World Bank identified projects where four laning would be done of the Sambalpur-Rourkela road from the existing two-lane road.

The long pending Joda-Bamebari Road and Koira-Rajamunda Road covering 229 kilometres would also be taken up.

The PPP module would be used for two vital rail links. The first was the Angul-Duburi-Sukinda rail link and the second the Gunupur-Theruvali link. In both cases, the Special Purpose Vehicle ( SPV) route was being proposed. The investment for the rail links was estimated to be in the region of Rs 570 crore. The Angul-Sukinda rail link would be of 90 kilometres and the Gunupur-Theruvali link would be 79 kilometres.

PPP’s for setting up Bio-tech parks, SEZ for IT/ITES companies and integrated commercial and residential complex, an enclave at Shahidnagar are were also part of the city building endeavour of the Orissa government.

This apart, a commercial shopping complex and an A.C.Market complex at Unit IV are also being contemplated in the PPP mode as part of city development plan.

Till date, investment for the SEZ for IT/ITES companies had been identified and were estimated to be in the region of Rs 35.67 crore. As for the other residential and commercial complexes, project details and cost were being worked out on a war footing.

Coupled with these, a multi-product SEZ at Paradeep had been suggested by the government for development using the PPP route. It was expected to entail an investment of Rs 712 crore.

Land of around 1093 hectares would be needed for the SEZ in the Marshagahi Tehsil of Kendrapara under Paradeep.

This article is probably based on a presentation available from the Orissa govt. website. That file seems to be corrupt but its google cache shows part of the information.

Reader Martand Deo suggests that there should be attempt to build the Khurda-Balangir line through PPP similar to the way the Hasan- Mangalore Rail Line is being built. His points are:

1. With the active initiative of Karnatak State Governament Hassan Mangalore Rail Development Company Limited (HSMDC) is formulated, along with this New Mangalore Port and Mineral Enterprise Limited, K-RIDE joins the hand to move this project forward, with the stake as follows

a. Government of Karnataka 40%
b. Ministry of Railways 40%
c New Mangalore Port Trust 9%
d. Mineral Enterprises Limited 9%
e. K-RIDE 2%

2. To have a better representation and smoother functionality HRMDC comes up with one Chief Executive Officer and assisted by Professional Board of directors from Government of Karnataka, Ministry of Railways, participant companies and other users of that
region .

3. This Rail Line also have greater challenges, which crosses Western Ghats passes through 55 kms of ghat section, on construction activities, train operations and maintenance of the
line, but a greater will power of karanatak finally made it.

4. Govt. Of Orissa is spending a lot in the name of KBK development, if it Could allocate some fund for this rail line, the development can be much more than the current trend, As the recent World Bank Survey says if one rupee is invested in terms of road, Rail infrastructure development, poverty elimination can be done 7 times better than others.

5. For details how Hasan- Mangalore rail line project is implemented, the following web Site can be visited. http://www.hmrdc.com/

I do not know about Karnataka, but the government of Orissa is involved in several Railway line construction through PPP. The two that are approved and underway are Haridaspur-Paradip and Angul-Sukinda. Then in their priority would be Gunupur-Theruvali (for shorter access to Gopalpur port), Bhadrakh-Dhamara (being built by DPCL), Gopalpur port connectivity and Vedanta University connectivity; followed by any other port connectivity for any other port that gets built such as Kirtania, Astarnga etc. Regardless, some way has to be figured out to get Khurda-Balangir connectivity done as soon as possible. A Business standard article in April lists some of the PPP driven plans of Orissa government.

Economic Times reports that Pentasoft plans a multiplex in Bhubaneswar and other cities. Following is an excerpt from that report.

As part of its expansion plans, the company has chosen Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar and Mysore for the projects, which would have resorts, theme parks, children games and go-carting, Pentasoft CEO Hariharan told reporters here.

The multiplexes would be ‘replicas’ of the one in Chennai, ‘Mayajal’, he said.

A review of Mayajal in Chennai is at this site.

Deepikaglobal reports that Hilton plans to open a Hilton Hotel and a Homewood Suites in Bhubaneswar. Bhubaneswar already has a Trident Hilton. Following is an excerpt from that report.

Speaking to mediapersons here today, DLF Home Developers Ltd Chief Financial Officer Surojit (Babu) Basak said, ”We plan to open two hotels under Hilton brands–Hilton Garden Inn, amid market segment hotel, and Homewood Suites, which are service apartments, entailing an investment of around Rs 500 crore. The hotels would have 600 rooms altogether. … The hotels would be operational in three years, he added.

The US-based Hilton Hotels is looking at ten-fold increase in the number of hotel property in India. Hilton Hotels would also open hotels in Delhi, Mysore, Bhubaneswar, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Goa and Kolkata. Homewood Suites, the longstay brand in Hilton’s portfolio, would debut at Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Hyderabad.

Many may not know that to the west of Bhubaneswar lies the Chandaka widlife sanctuary with varieties of flora and fauna. This sanctuary is considered as the lungs of Bhubaneswar. Today’s New Indian Express has an article about this. Following are some excerpts.

The sanctuary is perhaps among the few in the country which boasts of a treasure trove of flora and fauna excepting the royal Bengal tiger. The coastal range of sal forests also end here with an intimate mix of evergreen and deciduous elements.

According to divisional forest officer (DFO) Akshaya Kumar Pattanaik, though elephant is the flagship species, two types of monkeys, three deer species and three other herbivores, nine types of carnivores including the panther, two types of civets, tree shrew and pangolins are spotted.

Also the sanctuary is home to 21 types of snakes, 16 lizards, one species of turtle and marsh crocodile. The avian types include 174 with 10 species of water fowl and waders, seven ground nesters, seven raptors and 17 song birds.

The elephant population (65 in 2006 census) is seen in group sizes of 18, 13, 8, 7, 5 and 4. Even joining of three or four family groups were also observed aggregating to a herd size of 38 at Bharatpur in the past.

Orissa tourism has a nice page on Chandaka. Following is a map of Chandaka from that site.

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