___________

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.

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 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.

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.

Update: The updated train timings of this extended train is as follows. It is slower than expected and takes 4 hours between Rourkela and Hatia. But those extra stops, many in Jharkhand, makes it easy for the Jharkhand people to accept this extension. That may be the reason it has these many stops in between.

(Thanks to rourkelacity.com for the pointer to this topic.)

Following is from a report in Telegraph.

… the Jammu Tawi-Hatia Express will be extended till Rourkela from November 12. Hitherto, Rourkela could enjoy the services of only Hatia-Puri Tapaswini Express, Hatia-Bhubaneswar Garib Rath Express and Hatia-Jharsuguda Passenger.

The above report is from the Jharkhand edition of Telegraph. It is nice to hear that they are taking this news positively, unlike many places which complain when a train originating/terminating from their city is extended.

Although this is a slow train with many stops, this will be the first direct connection between a city in Odisha and Jammu Tawi. The major en-route stops of this train are: Muri, Allahabad, Kanpur, Tundla, Aligarh, Delhi, Sonipat, Panipat, Kurukshetra, Ambala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Pathankot Jn. From Ranchi it currently takes 30:25 hrs to Delhi. It takes about 2:30-3 hrs from Rourkela to Ranchi. So from Rourkela it will take about 33 hrs to Delhi. In comparison Utkal Express plus the 08177 Tata-JSG special takes 26:25 + 2:20 = 28:45hrs. So although it is not that good an alternative to travel to Delhi, it provides new connectivity between Rourkela to many other cities such as: Allahabad, Kanpur, Tundla, Aligarh, Sonipat, Panipat, Kurukshetra, Ambala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Pathankot Jn and Jammu Tawi.

This extension is the result of the efforts of the people of Rourkela. Their movement to provide better connectivity and facilities at Rourkela should be energized by this initial result.

From an initial look, Rourkela has good connectivity to places in the west (Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, etc.) and Kolkata.

With the above mentioned train the connectivity to Delhi will be decent and as mentioned their will be new connectivity to many new cities in the North. (Earlier there was only a biweekly train to/from Varanasi.)

In terms of connectivity to Southern cities the main trains are: the daily Allepey train with stoppages at Vizianagaram, Vizag, Vijaywada, Chennai, Coimbatore, Palghat, and Kochi (Ernakulum); thrice a week to/from Bangalore via Vijaywada and Tirupati; and weekly to Hyderabad. So the connectivity to Bangalore and Hyderabad needs to be improved urgently. Connectivity to/from Hyderabad could be easily improved by extending the biweekly Sambalpur-Nizamabad express to Rourkela. (One needs to check the current rake-sharing arrangements for it.)

The site http://rourkelarail.wetpaint.com/page/DEMANDS lists a bunch of demands from some railfans from Rourkela. It would help if they make a prioritized list of their demands for trains (new, extensions, frequency increases): Top, Top 3, Top 5. Note that diversions and rerouting of trains is extremely rare as the people in the current routes (who will lose that train) will oppose it. So such demands undermine the effort.

Update on May6th 2012: 300 crores for Malkangiri and Sukma (Chhatisgarh) under the Special Area Development plan (SADP).

The initial list of 83 Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts under Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme is at http://mha.nic.in/pdfs/LWE-aftdDist-131210.pdf. A jpg copy is given below.

In the 83 SRE districts all the expenses incurred on security in these districts are reimbursed by the MHA. These districts were identified after a survey where Maoist violence incidents are more than 20 percent of all the incidents in that district.

As per a recent news item in Pioneer, four more districts from Odisha have been included in this list. They are: Nuapada, Bargarh, Bolangir and Kalahandi.

Besides the LWE SRE scheme, there is an Integrated Action Plan for Backward and Tribal districts. Originally there were sixty such districts out of which:

(a) Five are in Odisha. They are: Deogarh, Gajapati, Malkangiri, Rayagada and Sambalpur. Each of these districts get a block grant of 30 crores.

(b) The eight KBK districts are also included in the IAP and they get the 30 crores each plus 130 crores for all 8 as part of the BRGF (Backward Regions Grant Fund). The eight KBK districts are:  Kalahandi, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Koraput, Rayagada, Malkangiri, Balangir and Sonepur.

(c) As per a recent news item in Pioneer, three more districts from Odisha have been included in this list. They are: Ganjam, Nayagarh and Jajpur.

In total there are 14 districts from Odisha that are covered under the IAP. They are: Balangir, Deogarh, Gajapati, Ganjam, Jajpur, Kalahandi, Koraput, Malkangiri,  Nabarangpur, Nayagarh, Nuapada, Rayagada, Sambalpur and Sonepur.

In total, 20 of Odisha’s 30 districts are now covered under these schemes. Following is the list.

• Balangir (IAP, KBK, LWE SRE)
• Baragarh (LWE SRE)
• Deogarh (IAP, LWE SRE)
• Dhenkanal (LWE SRE)
• Gajapati (IAP, LWE SRE)
• Ganjam (IAP, LWE SRE)
• Jajpur (IAP, LWE SRE)
• Kalahandi (IAP, KBK, LWE SRE)
• Kandhamal (LWE SRE)
• Keonjhar (LWE SRE, LWE SRE)
• Koraput (IAP, KBK, LWE SRE)
• Malkangiri (IAP, KBK, LWE SRE) (Update: SADP)
• Mayurbhanj (LWE SRE)
• Nabarangpur (IAP, KBK, LWE SRE)
• Nayagarh (IAP, LWE SRE)
• Nuapada (IAP, KBK, LWE SRE)
• Rayagada (IAP, KBK, LWE SRE)
• Sambalpur (IAP, LWE SRE)
• Sonepur (IAP, KBK)
• Sundergarh (LWE SRE)

The ten districts that are not covered above are: Angul, Balasore, Bhadrak, Bauda, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Jharsuguda, Kendrapada, Khurda and Puri.

Following is from the Team Orissa newsletter of AprilJune’2011.

In regards to the airport in Paradeep, there has been news that it will be an important aspect of the proposed PCPIR in Paradeep.

In the past, two other airport locations have been mentioned: Koraput/Jeypore/Sunabeda area and Balasore/Baripada/Rasgovindpur area. In fact, after Rourkela, Jharsuguda and Gopalpur, these two will be the important locations as they have the potential to be regional airports.

(Thanks to Situn and Rourkelacity.com for the pointer.)

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

Air taxi services between Rourkela and Calcutta will be launched from September 1. As a promotional fare, a one way trip per person (inclusive of all charges) would cost Rs 4,189 for Rourkela-Calcutta sector from September 1 till 11. Thereafter, the full fare of Rs 6,494 (inclusive of all charges) will be levied on the sector. The bookings on the Calcutta-Rourkela-Calcutta route is already on and available on the website www.dtdsindia.com.

We explored the DTDS webiste at http://www.dtdsindia.com/.  Following are some excerpts.

Between Kolkata airport and all the neighboring Steel City Bokaro, Jamshedpur, Burnpur, Durgapur (Panagarh), Rourkela airport at a fixed and convenient schedule.  …

As soon as you arrive at airport, our staff will greet you with your boarding ticket and escort you till the aircraft where you board and take off.

Following are the flight timings.

Now the people of Rourkela need to patronize this flight so that other careers get interested in scheduling regular flights to Rourkela.

Following is an excerpt from a PTI report in Times of India.

"All the six coal-blocks are part of the IB Valley coalfield and only one (Meenakshi-A) is presently in the ‘go’ area, the other five being in ‘no go’ areas. All six blocks will now be considered by FAC ( Forest Advisory Committee) as ‘go’ areas," Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said in a statement.

Giving green signal to clear coal-blocks linked to UMPP, NTPC and OPGC power plants, the Minister said the Power Ministry should give "special focus" on ash disposal and water availability.

Three coal-blocks (Meenakshi-A, Meenakshi-B and Meenakshi Dipside) have been allocated to the 3960MW/4000MW Ultra Mega Power Plant (UMPP).

Coal-blocks (Manoharpur and Manoharpur Dipside) have been allocated to the 1320 MW power plant of Orissa Power Generation Corporation (OPGC). One coal-block (Dulanga) has been allocated to NTPC’s 1600 MW power plant.

Following is from the article at http://www.cseindia.org/content/cse-releases-its-report-profit-sharing-mining. This is for wider dissemination of the article. The highlights are done by us.

Bhubaneswar, June 24, 2011: Mining companies and industry in general have been opposing the government’s recent proposal to set aside 26 per cent of their net profits, to be shared with local communities. Their contention is that this provision, if passed by Parliament, would drastically dent their profitability. A recent analysis by New Delhi-based research and advocacy body, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), proves them wrong.

The Central government has come out with a draft Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) bill, 2010 (MMDR bill) to replace the 1957 Act. The draft bill which has been vetted by a GoM, includes this provision of sharing benefits. The CSE analysis comes out in strong support of this proposal, and clearly establishes how timely and necessary this provision is.

The CSE analysis was released here today in a Public Meeting chaired by Santha Sheela Nair, former secretary, Union ministry of mines. The meeting was attended by Manoj Ahuja, Secretary (Mines), Odisha government, BL Bagra, Chairman and Managing Director (NALCO) and Yashbant Narayan Singh Laguri, Member of Parliament (Keonjhar).

Speaking on the occasion, Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general of CSE said: "It is now well recognised across the world – including in India — that wealth generated by the mining sector comes at a substantial development cost, along with environmental damages and economic exclusion of the marginalised. In fact, the major mining districts of India are among its poorest and most polluted."

He added: "The government’s proposal to share the benefits of mining with local people is an important step ahead in building an inclusive growth model. It is also in line with the best practices being followed in the world. The principles are not new and many mineral-rich countries have been following it for years without impacting the genuine profitability of mining companies."

Profit sharing a global practice
To break this resource curse, a number of countries across the globe have incorporated the provision of benefit sharing in their mining legislations to enable local communities to benefit from mining activities in their region.

South Africa’s Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, 2002 gives communities the opportunity to obtain a ‘preferential right’ to prospect or mine a mineral on land registered under the name of the community.

In Canada, special mining regulations are in place to recognise the rights of the aboriginals. There are some treaties called land claim agreements (LCA) which establish defined area of land for aboriginals and cover issues of mineral rights. These agreements also give specific rights to aboriginals. For example, the Nunavut LCA grants Inuits the title to about 3.5 million ha of land and mineral rights to approximately 0.35 million ha. It also gives rights to Inuits in controlling how mining will proceed on lands owned by them. Usually in such circumstances, mineral leases are given to third party to develop those resources in exchange of signing an Impact Benefit Agreement (IBA). Even if both surface and subsurface right belongs to the government then also some rights like consultation are provided to aboriginals.

Papua New Guinea, for instance, has incorporated provisions under which the mine lease holder is to provide compensation to the landholders on whose land mining is to take place, under its Mining Act 1992. The compensation is dependent on the negotiating skills of the community/landholders. For instance, the Ok Tedi copper mines have a special institutional structure to manage and implement the 52 per cent dividends received from the mine operations. This is a legally binding obligation that the company must follow as per the legislation passed in November 2001.

In Australia, the aboriginals have been given special rights in case mining happens on their land. These rights are to be realised by mining agreements. Different parts of Australia, has varying laws regarding aboriginals and mining. For example, the Aboriginal Land Rights Northern Territory Act, 1976 establishes a financial regime whereby affected aboriginal people receive a share of the mining royalties earned from activity on aboriginal land. Australian government guarantee all mining royalty for aboriginal interests except 30 per cent which is reserved for the owners of the affected area.
 
Companies will lose profits? Hogwash
The CSE analysis clearly shows that the Indian mining sector enjoys huge profits. An analysis of the annual reports of three major non-coal mining companies (Manganese Ores India Ltd, Sesa Goa and National Mineral Development Corporation or NMDC) indicates that in 2009-10, their average profit after tax (PAT) was about 50 per cent of their turnovers. In the case of Coal India Limited, this was about 18 per cent.

Assuming the draft MMDR Act, 2010 becomes a law, the CSE analysis of companies shows that it will not make any material difference to the profitability of the company. After sharing 26 per cent of the net profit with the affected community, the PAT of National Mineral Development Corporation – for instance — will still be 41 per cent of its turnover (from 55 per cent). In the case of Coal India Limited, PAT will become 14 per cent of its turnover from 18 percent.

Rich lands, poor people
Almost all the country’s minerals are located in regions that also hold most of its forests, rivers and tribal populations. Mining and quarrying has destroyed large tracts of forest land in these areas, affecting the ecosystem and the livelihoods of the already impoverished tribals.

The top 50 mining districts of India, that account for more than 85 per cent of the value of minerals produced in the country (Rs. 85,00 crore), have close to 50 per cent of the total mine lease area in the country. These districts also have, on average more poverty, more forest cover and larger tribal population than rest of the country. According to CSE analysis, at least 2.5 million people are directly affected by mining in these districts which include those who have lost their land and livelihoods.

If the MMDR provision would have been implemented in the current year (2010-11), then the affected population of these districts could have got more than Rs 9,000 crore as share of profit from mining companies. The per capita figure for these districts could have been Rs. 38,000 in 2010-11 as share of profit from mining companies. 
 
The mining affected people in Odisha would have got about Rs 1,750 crore as share of profit from mining companies. This could have been used to reduce hunger, provide better health and education infrastructure and to ultimately bring people out of poverty. 

CSE examines a few cases in the state: Keonjhar currently produces more than one-fifth of India’s iron ore and contributes more than Rs 7,000 crore to value of minerals produced in the country. Worse, mining has done nothing for Keonjhar’s economic well being. Over 50 per cent of the district’s population is below poverty line (BPL). If the draft MMDR provisions would have been implemented for the present year, the affected people of the district would have money to the tune of Rs 750 crore as profit share (2010-11 figures). Every BPL household in Keonjhar would have got at least Rs 40,000 annually.   

Similarly, Sundargarh with Scheduled Tribes (ST) as about half its population, produces minerals worth Rs 2700 crore. The affected people of the district could get Rs 285 crore as share of profit from the mining companies. Every directly affected person from mining in Sundargarh could get Rs 45,000 annually. 

Says Chandra Bhushan: “This money should be used not only to reduce present impoverishment but also for future well being of the communities like investment in health and education. There is huge opposition to this bill and it may get axed. It is very important for the communities that this bill goes through.”

• For more information on this, please contact Sugandh Juneja of CSE at sugandh@cseindia.org or call her on 9953805227

• For additional information on CSE’s work in this area and subject,

Following is from a report in Business Standard.

Orissa government today approved nine new projects, including coal-to-liquid (CTL), steel and aluminium units involving investment of Rs 1,36,000 crore.

The projects got the final nod at a meeting of the high-level clearance authority chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Industries secretary T Ramachandru said.

Apart from two CTL, two steel and one aluminium units, the approved projects included a power plant, one textile unit, a paper plant and an aluminium park, he said.

Among the major proposals was the Rs 42,000 CTL project of Jindal Symflex Ltd to be set up at Durgapur in Angul district using German Lurgi technology, he said adding its capacity would be 80,000 barrels per day.

Requiring 4,000 acre of land, the project would have an 1100 mw captive power plant. Set to provide 6500 direct employment, it would use 90 cusec water from river Mahanadi.

Another CTL project is proposed to be set up by Strategic Energy Technology Systems Pvt Ltd, a joint venture of Tata and Saso, at an investment of Rs 35,000 crore at Gudiakateni in Dhenkanal district.

With a capacity of 80,000 barrels per day, the project requiring 4,000 acre land would have 1100 mw generation facility. It would generate 6700 direct employment while drawing 90 cusec water from river Mahanadi.

An aluminium project is proposed to be set up by a joint venture of L&T and Dubal at an investment of Rs 30,000 crore over an area of 4000 acre in Rayagada district. Its refinery would have 3 mtpa capacity and smelter 1.5 mtpa. It would draw 60 cusec water from river Nagavali.

Seeking to further raise energy production, the HLCA cleared a proposal of Lanco Dabandh Power Ltd to have another 1320 mw unit at an investment of Rs 5000 crore in addition to its earlier plant of same capacity in Dhenkanal district.

In textile sector, Andhra Pradesh based NSL Textiles Ltd would set up an integrated textile plant at an investment of Rs 1500 crore with a promise to provide 5000 jobs and steps to encourage one lakh farmers to grow cotton over an area of 2.25 lakh hectares of land.

Following are excerpts from a report in Pioneer.

With this, the total investments in the State’s industry sector went up to `5.36 lakh crore.

… Principal Secretary of Industries, T Ramachandru said the two ambitious coal-to-liquid projects are first of its kind in the country to be set up in joint venture. While Jindal Synfuels Limited of Jindal Steel and Power would set up a `.42,000-crore plant with technical collaboration of Largy of Germany, Strategic Energy Technology, a Tata venture, would establish its project with an investment of `45,000 crore with technological collaboration of Sasol of South Africa.

He said Jindal;s plant would be located at Durgapur in Angul district with a production capacity of 80,000 barrels of diesel and other petroleum products per day. Besides, Jindal Synfuels would also establish a 1100-MW captive thermal power plant. The project would require 90 cusecs of water to be drawn from the Mahanadi. It would require about 4000 acres of land. It would provide employment to around 6,500 persons.

The Tatas would set up their project in Dhenkanal district in 4,000 acres of land with a requirement of 90 cusecs of water. The project, which includes a 1,100-MW captive power plant, has direct employment potential of 6,400 persons and would produce 80,000 barrels of petroleum products per day, Ramachandru said.

He said both the projects have already been allotted with coal blocks by the Central Government.

Aditya Aluminium would establish an aluminium park at Katarbaga near Rengali in Sambalpur district by investing `1,300 crore to encourage ancillary and downstream industries in the small-scale sector. The park, which would require 211 acres of land, would facilitate units like foundry, wire drawing, extrusion and coil in its cluster.

The HLCA also approved the proposal of L&T Dubal, a joint venture company of L&T and Dubal Aluminium of Dubai, to establish an integrated aluminium project with a 3-MTPA alumina refinery and a 1.5-MTPA smelter with an investment proposal of `30,000 crore. The aluminium project would be located at Rayagada. The project, whichwould provide direct employment to 3,000 persons, would require 4,000 acres of land and 60 cusecs of water to be drawn from Nagavali river. The company is already in possession of bauxite mines.

Andhra Pradesh-based NSL Textile has also received clearance of its proposal to set up an integrated textile project at Rayagada with 3-lakh spindle capacity. The company would invest `1,500 crore to produce 6,000 pieces of cloths of varied qualities per day, Ramachandru said. He said the company would enter into agreements with farmers for cultivation of cottons to meet its raw material demands. The company would involve at least one lakh cotton growers for cultivation of cotton in 2.5 lakh acres of land in a buyback process. It would instal ginning, cotton processing, yarn preparation and finished clothes plants. It requires 400 acres of land Besides these new projects, the Industries Secretary said, the HLCA cleared the proposal of JK Paper Ltd of Rayagada to expand its capacity to 1.5 lakh tonne per annum with an involvement of `1,475 crore. With the capacity addition, the company would provide employment to 3,800 more persons. The company has applied for 150 acres of land to its existing 659 acres to set up the expansion project.

The HLCA also accorded approval to Adhunik Metalics to expand its steelmaking capacity to 3.2 MTPA in its Kuanramunda project in Sundargarah district. The company, which proposes an additional investment of `8,125 crore, promises to provide 2,100 more jobs. Presently, its production capacity is around .041 MTPA. It requires 100 acres of land for the expansion project.

OCL Iron and Steel Ltd got the clearance for capacity addition to its project at Kutnia, Rajgangpur to 0.95 MTPA at an investment of `2,834 crore. It proposes to provide 2,500 more direct jobs. It also envisages downstream industries and requires 650 acres land.

The HLCA also approved the proposal of existing Lacno Babandh Power Private Ltd at Khadakhprasad to double its power generation capacity from 1,320 MW.

It proposes to set up two new units of 660 MW and invest additional `5,000 crore in its thermal power plant. It requires an additional 700 acres of land and would provide employment to 800 more persons, the Industries Secretary said.

For some time now people in Rourkela have been unhappy with Indian Railways. The situation was exacerbated since Utkal Express was temporarily diverted to go via Angul and Jharsuguda and skip Rourkela. Since then people in Rourkela have been struggling with their only connection to New Delhi broken.

Finally with the threat of a huge demonstration looming the IR seems to have taken notice and is talking to the CM. Following is from Dharitri.

Following is from Sambada.

I hope the Rourkela people do not cool down with this small gesture. They need to continue to push (but in legal ways) for their other demands, such as making Rourkela Station a world station, time bound completion of the Talcher-Bimlagarh line in 3-4 years, creating a Rourkela division and making the above extensions permanent.

I think the demand to take Rourkela out of SER has woken up the SER people. Until all the demands of Rourkelites are fulfilled SER needs to be put on its toes (but in legal ways). That seems to be the only way to wake SER from its slumber and get it to do the right thing for Rourkela.

(Thanks to http://www.rourkelacity.com/rdf/showthread.php?p=1291#post1290 for the pointer.)

The following are screens shots from http://www.forumprojects.in/forum_retail_upcoming/retail_upcoming.html.

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

• Of the total Rs 3,400 crore investment proposals approved by the SLSWCC, Rs 2,870 crore would be in the steel sector …
• SLWCC approved a proposal from Tata Steel to set up a re-bar mill and a hi-carbon ferrochrome unit at its Gopalpur SEZ in Ganjam district. The steel major would invest Rs 800 crore in the project … this time the company had been asked to use water through the process of desalination, Ramachandru said. While the Tata Steel was planning to manufacture 4 lakh metric ton of re-bar mill per annum from its re-bar mill unit, it would produce 55,000 metric tons of hi-carbon ferrochrome at the Gopalpur SEZ to be set up by the company.
• Other steel units included
  • a 0.6 mtpa integrated plant at an investment of Rs 925 crore by Shyam Steel Industry
  • Sri Bajrang Power & Ispat company’s 0.12 mtpa steel plant at an investment of Rs 500 crore
  • another 0.21 mtpa plant at an investment of Rs 645 crore by Rupa Ispat
• Aryan Mining and Trading Corporation Limited’s proposal for setting up an ore benefication plant at Koeda in Sundargarh district at an investment of Rs 423 crore was also okayed
• Kashivi International’s proposal to set up an iron ore pellet plant at an investment of Rs 56 crore was also cleared
• Binani Cement Limited which had initially decided to set up a cement plant at Dhamra in Bhadrak district had been allowed to shift its unit to Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district

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

How justified is the demand to carve out a separate railway division at Rourkela under the East Coast Railway (ECoR)? Given the continuing neglect towards the infrastructure and passenger amenities over decades, the demand is gaining momentum.

With apolitical and political outfits jumping on the bandwagon to seek separation of Rourkela from the Chakradharpur division of the South Eastern Railway (SER), the Railway Ministry is likely to feel the heat ahead.

Train Passenger Steering Committee convener and Rourkela Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Subrat Patnaik in tandem with the members of the Rourkela Development Forum (RDF) and Rourkela Railfanning Association (RRA) are vociferous in their demand. The local BJD unit has gone a step ahead to threaten disruption of mineral transportation by rail if the issue was not sorted out.

Locals feel, in the changed scenario, the triangular districts of Sundargarh, Jharsuguda and Keonjhar – high on industrial and mining activities – would no longer tolerate further neglect as Sundargarh alone annually contributes ` 800 crore to SER.

… Inadequate train services and infrastructure apart, the lingering of the proposed Bimlagarh-Talcher rail link is a stark pointer of neglect, they stated.

Even 10 per cent of the revenue generated from the regions is not spent to benefit a population of over 50 lakh.

RDF and RRA members Dilip Mohanty, Mahendra Mishra, Mihir Swain and Supratik Mishra sent a memorandum to the Railway Ministry over the demand claiming the combined revenue share from these three districts is anything over ` 2,200 crore.  …

The fact that there is an ECOR division in Sambalpur (147 kms from Rourkela) and Chakradharpur (101 kms from Rourkela) should not be a concern as there are many railway divisions that are much closer. In http://www.rourkelacity.com/top-news/rourkelare-rela-division/ it is mentioned that there are separate rail divisions in Varanasi and Mughalsarai that are only 17 kms apart, Guntur and Vijaywada that are 34 kms apart and so on. 

The petition at http://www.petitionodisha.in/transportation/creating-a-new-east-coast-railway-division-at-rourkela/ lists various reasons why a ECOR rail division in Rourkela is needed. Please visit it and sign it.

There is also a similar need for a railway division in Rayagada or Kesinga/Lanjigarh Rd/Bhawanipatna to cater to existing lines and to the many new lines that are coming up there. The new lines include Naupada-Gunupur and its extension to Therubali and Lanjigarh Rd – Junagarh and its extension to Nabarangpur and Jeypore.  With many people in Viskhapatnam demanding that the VSKP division be split from ECOR, if that happens the Odisha part of the current VSKP division as well the above mentioned new lines should be moved to the proposed division at  Rayagada or Kesinga/Lanjigarh Rd/Bhawanipatna.

In North Odisha with several new lines coming up (Bhadrakk – Dhamara, Chakulia – Buramara, Jaleswar – Digha, ) and with the commencement of broad gauge service in the Rupsa-Baripada-Bangiriposi line a new division in Balasore or Bhadrak is warranted. SER greatly meshed up the Rupsa-Baripada-Bangiriposi line costing Indian Railways significantly. See page 8-9 of 2006-may-CAG report. These parts should also be taken away from SER.

Following is from a report in Business Standard.

The Orissa government has decided to undertake 14 projects on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode involving an expenditure of Rs 6,218.02 crore.

A total of 46 projects, to be taken up on the PPP mode, are under the consideration of the state government, A U Singhdeo, minister for Planning & Coordination said in the state assembly.

… The Infocity-II project, one of the major PPP projects, being planned over 600 acres of land at Janla on the outskirts of the city, has gathered some steam after being marred by inordinate delay.

As part of its commitment to expedite this project, the state government has set in motion the process to prepare Request for Qualification (RFQ) for this project.

"An empowered committee of the state industries department has been asked to oversee the bidding process of the Infocity-II project. The RFQ is currently being prepared. The land acquisition for the project has been already completed and environment clearance has been obtained. The state government has also submitted an application to the Government of India for Special Economic zone (SEZ) notification for the project,” the minister said.

The other notable projects in the information technology sector taken up on the PPP mode are Mindspace IT Park involving a cost of Rs 480 crore, the DLF Infopark project entailing an investment of around Rs 1,000 crore and an IT & Corporate Tower being taken up at Chandrasekharpur at a cost of Rs 140 crore.

In the tourism sector, the Empowered Committee on Infrastructure (ECI) has approved the revised Request for Proposal (RFP) for selecting the master developer for the Shmauka beach tourism project being taken up at a cost of Rs 3,500 crore on around 3,000 acres of land at Sipasarubali near Puri.

In the road transport sector, the High Level Clearance Authority of the state government has approved a proposal to seek Viability Gap Fund (VGF) assistance for the four-laning of the Sambalpur-Rourkela road involving a cost of Rs 1,483 crore.

For the Koira-Tensa-Lahunipara road in Keonjhar district, involving an implementation cost of Rs 392.2 crore, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has submitted a draft preliminary report. This project needs 38 per cent VGF as per the toll rates of National Highways Authority of India Ltd (NHAI).

Meanwhile, feasibility study is underway for three other road projects- Shaukati-Dubuna road in Keonjhar district, Tensa-Barsuan-Lahunipara road in Sundergarh district and Chorada-Duburi road in Dhenkanal  Jajpur.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

… the single-window clearance committee of the state government, cleared five proposals worth Rs 1,340 crore. Industries secretary T. Ramchandru said that Orissa-based Konark Kranti Energy would set up a petroleum complex at Paradip and a petroleum storage facility at Dhamra port. “The company will invest Rs 300 crore,” he said.

Britania Industries Limited would also set up a plant at Khurda with an investment of Rs 51 crore.

Around 700 people will be employed by the firm. Everest Industry would set up a corrugated asbestos plant at Somanthpur in Balasore with an investment of Rs 69 crore, Chariot Steel and Power would expand its cement plant at Sundergarh and invest Rs 320 crore while Nababharat Ventures Limited would set up a power plant with an investment of Rs 600 crore, he added.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

A private airline today submitted a proposal to the state government to start a daily air service between Rourkela and Calcutta. The company initially proposes to operate an 18-seater aircraft.

The company, which has done a preliminary survey, intends to use the airstrip of Rourkela steel plant but it has urged the government to provide another 64 acres to develop the airstrip. In the second phase, it plans to start anther flight from Rourkela to Bhubaneswar via Jharsuguda. The proposal is under consideration, said sources. Representatives of the airline met the chief secretary Bijay Patnaik and submitted their proposal today.

As per their 2010 placement brochure, NIT Rourkela has 675 acres and following some high court order would be expanding by adding another 400 acres. The following Samaja article talks about that expansion.

It is great that this discussion came up at the Chief Secretary level. With stability at that position for next several years pursuing a comprehensive development agenda for Rourkela with him could work well. Some of the issues that should be pursued with him include:

• Medical Colleges (ESIC, SAIL)
• University (a comprehensive metropolitan university with all branches)
• A national level sports or physical education institute or university (upgrade existing sports academies)
• Airport
• Raiway issues (world class station, Division HQ, Talcher-Bimlagarh line; more trains)
• Declaring greater Rourkela as a municipal corporation
• Public transport inside Rourkela
• Enticing IT/BPO industries to take advantage of the cosmopolitan demography to set shop there; Development of IT parks.
• Encouraging various companies in RKL to further contribute with respect to HRD (SAIL medical and Engineering College, etc.)

Please suggest more.

We discussed this earlier in greater length at http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3480. See also http://www.orissa2020.org/home/area-wise-plan.

With more and more BPUT operations moving to Rourkela (thanks to http://rourkelacity.com for the pointer) there could be some huge positives, but not one that people normally think as BPUT’s academic programs in Rourkela will not be better than the programs at NIT Rourkela. But there would be definitely more seats; so that would be good. But the biggest positives would be with respect to connectivity.

In particular, the connectivity between Rourkela and the rest of Odisha, especially the Bhubaneswar area, would improve. Currently not enough attention is being paid to that.

For example, the Talcher-Bimlagarh line will significantly shorten the distance between Bhubaneswar and Rourkela. The distance between them will become 308 kms: BBS-Talcher (114) + Talcher-Bimlagarh(154) + Bimlagarh-Rourkela(40). Currently the shortest distance is 419 kms. Once Talcher-Bimlagarh line is completed one could travel between BBS and ROU in about 5 hours. That would mean one could take a train from one place at 6 and reach the other at 11. Currently the BBS-ROU intercity takes 7hrs 30 minutes one way and 7hs 55 minutes the other way. On the other hand the BBS-SBP takes between 4:40 to 4:50 minutes in the two intercities (BBS-BLGR and SBP-Puri).

So lets hope that the inconvenience caused by having many BPUT operations from Rourkela will lead to people demanding speeding up of the completion of the Talcher-Bimlagarh line and perhaps even the start of shuttle flights between Bhubaneswar and Rourkela.

Another positive would be that more private colleges (not now but in few years when the demand picks up again) may come up close to Rourkela and the frequent travel by college heads to Rourkela could give them ideas to develop the travel corridor in many ways.

So although the convenience argument is often used by many (including me) to support some BPUT operations in Bhubaneswar, where most of the BPUT colleges are, perhaps for the greater and longer term good some inconvenience in the short term can be accepted.

Bringing Rourkela and Bhubaneswar closer (in travel time as well as in people’s mind) would be a big plus for Odisha.

Lets work on operationalizing Talcher-Bimlagarh line in 3-5 years!

Following is from a report in Hindu Businessline.

… Orissa government on Friday approved fresh investment of Rs 6,500 crore …

The investment proposals were approved by the Single Window Clearance Committee (SLWCC) meeting chaired by the chief secretary Mr B K Patnaik here.

“The 16 projects approved today will give direct employment to 15,000 people and provide indirect employment for another 25,000 persons,” Industries secretary Mr Sourav Garg told reporters adding that projects worth less than Rs 1,000 crore got clearance from the SLWCC.

Stating that the projects were in cement (4 units), food processing (one unit), manufacturing (one unit), power (one unit), paper (one unit) and steel (five units) sectors …

The name of the companies and additional details are given in this report from Samaja.