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Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

Under the PPT mode, the State Government has decided to build a Capital Region Ring Road. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the Empowered Committee on Infrastructure (ECI) chaired by the Chief Secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy on Tuesday.

The proposed ring road will constructed with an aim to lessen pressure on the vehicular traffic movement on Bhubaneswar-Cuttack road. The road will start from Khurda and pass through Bhubaneswar via bypass and touch Nirgundi near Cuttack. The survey work for the project will commence soon.

Keeping the growing industrialisation in view, another road under PPT will be built connecting directly Bhubaneswar to Paradip. It will also help the smooth movement of traffic from Capital to Port City. ILFS will do the necessary survey work.

In order to strengthen the PPT mode, Government has constituted seven cells in different departments like Fisheries and Animal Development, Energy, Panchayat Raj and Information and Technology.

The committee approved five proposals under PPT. In a bid to develop the infrastructure of Berhampur city, Government has decided to build an integrated commercial and residential complex under the banner Gajapati Plaza. Rs 10 crore will be spent to build this project. Government will provide five acre of land for this purpose. All the modern amenities including swimming poll facilities will also be available in the complex. The project work would be entrusted to Forum Project Private Limited. Work on the project would commence in the next 15 days. The ECI also gave its nod to set up a bio-tech farm in an area of 64.86 acres of land near Andharua on the outskirt of Bhubaneswar city. A bio-tech incubation centre will be set up in another 10 acres of land in Andharua also. Five major state-of-the-art infrastructure in the form of modular laboratories, loaded wet laboratories, common equipment facilities and amenities, pilot plant facilities and training centre would be provided in the park.

These facilities in the Biotechnology Research Platform will help to multiply the number of users on free-for -use basis. Selected private developers will be allowed to operate, manage, maintain and market the park in Bio-Tech Pharma and Bio-Informatics -IT related issues.

Baazar Kolkata has already opened and is in the process of opening stores in various Orissa locations: 2 in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, Berhampur. Following is a news item on this in Samaja. (Note: Baazar Kolkata is different from the Big Bazar Chain.)

(See http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/?p=96 for other expansion plans of Paradeep port.)

Following is an excerpt from a report in the New Indian Express.

The State Government will seek Central assistance of Rs 45 crore under the Rastriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) for the current fiscal.

The Centre has introduced the new additional Central assistance scheme to incentivise the State which exceed plan expenditure consecutively in the last three years.

… The committee approved the proposals of the Agriculture Department, which has sought an assistance of Rs 10.10 crore for managing acid soil to boost agriculture production, Rs 8.8 crore for popularisation of farm mechanisation and Rs 2.52 crore for systematic rice intensification in areas having low rice production.

Under the rice intensification programme, field demonstration will be taken up where farmers will be educated on how to get higher yield with less use of seeds, water and fertilisers, official sources said.

The department has asked an assistance of Rs 2 crore for strengthening soil testing service, Rs 1.06 crore for bio-fertiliser application for pulses and oilseeds and Rs 55.55 lakh for promotion of organic farming through vermi hatchery and blue green algae.

It has also proposed to set up seed processing plant in Gajapati, Kendrapara and Jharsuguda districts and modernise the agriculture information wing in the city and at Sambalpur with an investment of Rs 1.80 crore and Rs 1.18 crore respectively.

Since the Centre will provide the additional assistance in two streams, the total estimate for 12 projects in the first stream is Rs 28.83 crore. Seventy-five percent of the additional Central assistance is for programme implementation while the remaining 25 percent is to bridge resource gap in the State plan.

The Government will ask Rs 15.94-crore Central assistance under the stream-II out of which Rs 4 crore will be for strengthening its implement factory at Satyanagar, Rs 2.45 crore for infrastructure development and strengthening the training centres (gram sevak kendras), Rs 7 crore for construction of 17 seed storage godowns and Rs 2 crore for establishment of agro-service centres at gram panchayat level.

Dharitri has a nice article on the golden future of Dhamara. Following are some of the major projects involving Dhamara. My prediction is that in 10-15 years the Chandbali-Dhamara-Bhitarakanika area will be a beautiful metropolitan area  next to a national park. (See top right in this map.)

1. L & T and the Tatas are building a port in Dhamara.
2. Central government is upgrading Dhamara fishing jetty  to an international fishing harbor.
3. Bharati Shipyard and Appejay group plan to build a shipyard in Dhamara.
4. A railway line connecting Dhamara and Bhadrakh will be build.
5. Good roads will definitely connect Dhamara to nearby National Highways.
6. Dhamara will be a major stop in National Waterway 5.
7. Dhamara is next to the Bhitarakanika National Park (more)

Following is an excerpt from a news item in rediff.com.

Keeping to long-standing demands from the Information Technology companies in the small and medium enterprise sector, the inter-ministerial committee of the Centre has approved the first private software technology park of Orissa.

The Bhubaneswar-based JSS Group, operating as a BPO / KPO company in the banking and financial back-end services, has received the distinction. The new private STP has been christened as JSS Software Technology Park.

The private STP is being set up by the JSS Group at Infocity in Chandaka, Bhubaneswar.

… When contacted, chairman of JSS group, Bijoy K Sahoo said, "For long we have been urging for setting up a private STP in the state. Finally it has been awarded to us. We thank the Orissa government for helping us achieve our aim. This would open the flood gates for more private STPs".

Neighbouring states like Andhra Pradesh already have more than 100 private STPs, for the ITSME sector, followed by other states like West Bengal. Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Almost 98 per cent of Orissa IT companies registered with the Software Technology Parks of India belong to the SME sector. The state has set to itself a software export target of achieving Rs 1,000 crore in the next couple of years.

Following is an excerpt from a news report in the Statesman.

The Film Society of Bhubaneswar (FSB) is organising Airtel Bhubaneswar Film Festival’07 (BFF’07), which will begin from tomorrow. The five-day event will bring together a selection of contemporary and critically acclaimed films, which would offer meaningful and entertaining exposure to social issues, cultural conventions and artistic excellence from all over the world. In total, 16 highly acclaimed feature films and six documentary  films will be screened.

The most important feature of this film festival is the showcasing of contemporary African and Asian films, whose style and aesthetics have been critically appreciated in various echelons. In the African category, movies from South Africa, West Africa, Angola, Senegal and Morocco would be exhibited. They include films of award winning film-makers like Maria Joa Ganga, Ousmane Sembene, Nabil Ayouch, Abderrahmane Sissako, and Gavin Wood.

In the Asian category, films of Hirokazu Koreeda, Tsai Ming-liang, Bahman Farmanara and Nir Bergman would be screened. Apart from these, path-breaking classics of four great directors-Ugetsu Monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi), Wild Strawberries (Ingmar Bergman), Mouchette (Robert Bresson) and Titas-Ekti Nadir Naam (Ritwik Ghatak) would be shown. Himanshu Khatua’s Sunya Swarupa, in Oriya would also be screened at the event.

Following is a from a news item in tathya.in.

Tin project of the Koustuv Mining and Smelting Company (KMS) also received the nod of the Authority. 

KMS will set up tin smelting plant at Khurda and refinery at Malkangiri with an investment of Rs.95.61 crore. 

The company holds mining lease for 1116.830 hectares in tin ore rich area of Malkangiri.

Following is from odisha.in.

According to official sources, the SLSWCC has also cleared six other industrial project proposal, which include- Dev Alloys at, Jajpur, Ravi Metalik , Sambalpur, Kaustuv Mining  and  Smelter at Malkangir, Orissa Mining and Mineral Development Pvt Ltd, at Dhenkanal, S.L.Mining, Joda and ESSAR’s expansion proposal for its proposed Paradeep Steel project.

Following is an excerpt from a news item in tathya.in.

In 2005 the company entered memorandum of understanding (MOU) with state government to set up a 4 million tone per annum steel project at Paradeep. 

Now the company wanted to add another 2 million ton per annum capacity to the Greenfield project. 

The Authority cleared the proposal, which will be of Rs.9797.50 crore. 

So the Essar Steel will invest Rs.20518.50 crore in Orissa, said Mr.Dalwai.

Following is an excerpt from a news item in tathya.in.

The State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) has paved the way for the first shipyard project in Orissa. 

… Presenting the case Ashok Dalwai, Secretary Industries the project will provide jobs for 41,000 people. 

The Bharati Shipyard Limited (BSL), a major private shipyard and the Apeejay Surendra Group, an industrial conglomerate have joined hands to set up the-State-of-the-art shipbuilding yard and ship repair yard project at Dhamra in Orissa. 

The mega shipyard project will entail an investment of Rs.2200 crore in 3 phases. 

Easy availability of raw material like steel, large number of skilled, unskilled man power and above all the proactive government policies dotted with positive environment for investors are creating conducive atmosphere for a mega shipyard in the state.

The requirement of steel in shipbuilding and repairing has been projected as in the first phase it will be up to 75,000 MT per annum, while in second phase it will go up to 2,30,000 MT.

In the final phase the steel requirement will go up to 4, 50,000 MT said the source.

The proposed site has been identified near the Dhamra Port, where out of 1500 acres surveyed 1050 acre of land has been provisionally selected for the mega shipyard.

Milestones set up for the project envisages that Master Plan will be ready in the next year and construction of the shipyard will begin in mid of 2008. 

The Joint venture promoters feel that the project will complete its first phase construction in early 2009 to begin commercial production by middle of the year.

Odisha.in adds the following:

The company has also plans to set up an ITI neared to the project site to provide technical training to local youth to enable them to get related jobs in the project.

Following is an excerpt from a report in New Indian Express.

Announcing the formal operationalisation of this 120-bedded multi-specialty care hospital, one of its promoters Dr Ashok Acharya said, the centre would set new benchmarks in health care facilities in the State.

The hospital has earmarked 39 beds for critical care, in keeping with the prescribed national ratio. The hospital will have full time consultants in all super specialty branches along with two tier of senior and junior residents.

Besides, there will also be floor free operating theatres and ICUs. Dr Kamal Lochan Mohapatra, the other promoter of the hospital, informed that Ayush Hospital will have advanced radio diagnostics for 0.35 Telsa MRI units, multi detector CT scan, mammography, all kinds of video scopies besides a critical cardiac care ambulance.

While the hospital project took 18 months to be complete, the promoters are busy adding to its infrastructure.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

Orissa Minerals Development Company (OMDC), operating under the direct administrative control of the Union Ministry of Steel, has announced that it was ready to supply iron ore to the companies which have signed MoUs with the Orissa Government for setting up of steel plants.

Chairman-cum-Managing Director of OMDC MS Barpanda said he had already conveyed his decision to the State’s Secretary Of Steel and Mines UP Singh.

… OMDC has six iron ore and manganese mines in Barabil area of Keonjhar. Barpanda had steadied the company which was reeling under allegations of embezzlement of funds under investigation of CBI.

He has now established contacts with the Orissa Government for renewal of mining leases and setting up of a palletisation plant in Orissa.

Barpanda, … added that OMDC under his dispensation had been finalising all contracts in a most transparent manner through open tender by advertisements in newspapers and e-auction process.

He further added that notwithstanding cancellation of the leases of two major mines by the Orissa Government production in OMDC had increased in volume, which only proves that all the remedial measures initiated by him had yielded results.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

Broadband services in the town and other parts of the district would soon be launched after standard tests, said SM Talwar, chief general manger, Telecom, (CGMT) Orissa circle.

Following are extracted from a report in the Pioneer.

• the State Commerce and Transport Department, in its sanction order-29753, dated May 30, 1970, had allotted 3, 793.21 acres in the first phase and 2285.23 acres in the second phase to the Paradip Port Project. Most of the lands were obtained from Sandhakuda, Bijayachandrapur, Balijhari and Bhitaragara villages, under Kujang Tehsil. According to the official sources, about 6,889 acres of land were supplied to the Paradip Port Trust.
• The State Government had provided 62.19 acres of land to the Paradeep Phosphate Ltd, which is a fertiliser plant that started its project in 1982. The PPL had acquired 405 acres of private lands from Bhitaragada village on its own.
• … in Paradeep-Cuttack railway line 137 acres of land were acquired from the Bhitaragada village.
• Kujang Tehsil had about 1,500 acres of Government land in the Musadiha area that was provided to the Oswal Fertiliser Plant in the year 1995-96. The plant had also purchased about 500 acres of private land from the local people.
• … in 2000 Indian Oil Corporation had purchased 3,300 acres of private land from the local people of 17 villages for its refinery project, which was to be set up on the outskirts of Paradip but the project is yet to come.
• for much-hyped Haridaspur-Paradip Railway Project, widening of the NH-5 and recent expansion of Cuttack-Paradip State Highway, thousands of acres of both Government and private lands have been acquired from Kujang Tehsil.
• Essar, the 6 million tonnes steel plant project, moves for the land acquisition in Paradip and the project needs about 1,950 acres of land. The State Government has already given 350 acres of land to the plant. It will procure the remaining required land from private land.
• Posco has shown a demand of about 4,004 acres of land in Dhinkia, Gadakujang and Nuagaon villages for its steel plant and port project. The State Government has given assurance and has provided Posco most of the encroached Government and forestlands. The rest of the required land would be purchased from private landowners.

Following is an excerpt from a news report in Pioneer.

Ansupa, Orissa’s largest fresh water lake, 70 km from here, is set to be revived at a cost of Rs 6.41 crore. The Finance Commission is funding the first phase of the project, during which the lake’s silt load is being removed.

… Chief Secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy said the State Government aimed at bringing back both aquatic life and tourists to Ansupa. An existing channel would be revived to facilitate entry of water and trees would be planted on the banks of the lake to check soil erosion, he said, adding that development of ecotourism was an integral part of the project.

The lake previously used to boast of a picture perfect setting between Saranda and Bishnupur hills on the outskirts of the sub-divisional town of Athgarh and was home to migratory birds in winter. It, however, suffered a slow death due to severe erosion around its catchment area, silting and proliferation of algae and hyacinth plants. The lake’s depth has now been reduced to 10 feet from the original 40 feet.

The revival project, being implemented by the District Rural Development Agency, Cuttack, under the Ansupa Area Development Scheme, aims at reopening of the Kabulanala channel on the lake’s south-east side, which used to link it with the Mahanadi till an embankment was constructed on the river a decade back. The floodwaters used to enter the lake from the south-eastern side through the channel and flush out the weeds through a stream, Hulhullanala, which runs into the Mahanadi on the south-western side.

The proposed opening of the channel would revive the natural process of de-weeding as the embankment stalled this natural process and the water entering into the lake could not get released. The heavy silting had set in due to the soil erosion from Saranda hill on the lake’s western side and Bishnupur hill on its north-eastern side due to deforestation. Besides, conversion of the silted area into paddy fields worsened the situation.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

Indian Bank is set to open four more “Microsate” (a satellite branch for micro loans) branches across the country by the end of 2007, taking the total number to 12. These would come up in Bhubaneswar, New Delhi, Pune, and Bangalore.

The public sector bank was the first bank to introduce exclusive microcredit branches to provide credit to self-help groups (SHGs). It currently has eight exclusive microcredit branches, including the one opened in Chennai (second branch in the city) on Saturday.

According to MS Sundara Rajan, chairman and managing director, Indian Bank, so far 6,982 groups have been provided a credit of Rs 56.42 crore through Microsate branches, which also provide non-credit services like training, counselling and marketing besides catering to the credit needs of the urban poor.

“The bank has so far credit-linked over 2.30 lakh SHGs to the tune of Rs 1,545.48 crore. To meet the needs of the urban poor in Chennai, a Microsate branch was opened in May 2005 in Chetpet. The branch has so far covered over 101,000 families in Chennai. Consequently, six more branches were opened in Patna, Vijayawada, Hyderabad, Nadiad (Ahmedabad), Kollam (Kerala) and Kolkata during the first half of the current fiscal 2007-08,” he said.

Following is an excerpt from http://www.hemscott.com/news/latest-news/item.do?newsId=53878217759003. 

… India’s Supreme Court set new conditions for the project.

Vedanta’s battle to mine bauxite to feed the refinery in forests considered sacred by indigenous people has been seen as a test case in India, pitting industrial development against the interests of local inhabitants and the environment.

The Supreme Court refused to let the project in the eastern state of Orissa go ahead in its present form on the grounds that it could affect ‘sustainable development’ and asked Vedanta to come back with a new plan.

The court said Vedanta would have to give money for forest destruction, wildlife management and tribal development totalling around 180 mln usd.

Other conditions would include handing over 5 pct of pretax profits annually from its mining projects across India to the Orissa government.

Vedanta would also have to set up a ‘special purpose vehicle’ to ensure that environmental regulations were met, the court said.

Vedanta must file an interim application within eight weeks saying if it agreed to the conditions and the Supreme Court would reconsider the project, the court bench ruled.

Vedanta has been fighting for three years to obtain clearance for open cast mining of vast deposits of bauxite in the densely forested Niyamgiri hills to feed the 900 mln usd alumina refinery it has built nearby.

There was no immediate comment from Vedanta on the court ruling but it has in the past denied any wrongdoing and argued its projects would be welcomed by residents of the desperately poor region.

Following is an excerpt from Pioneer that gives the first reaction from Vedanta officials in Orissa on the supreme court judgment.

Reacting to the judgment, vice-president of Vedanta Alumina Ltd AK Samal said the Supreme Court had reiterated its emphasis on sustainable development but has no objections in principle to mining at Niyamgiri. However, the court has stipulated certain conditions to be complied by the project proponent.

He said the apex court had desired that Sterlite Industries, the flagship company of Vedanta Resources PLC in India, duly enlisted on the Indian Stock Market be a part of the Special Project Vehicle (SPV) for mining at Niyamgiri and Scheduled area development at Lajigarh, where the company’s alumina refinery is located. "We will take all steps to immediately abide by the directions and conditions set out by the SC," he said, adding that the company was still waiting for a copy of the judgment.

Samal said his company was committed to the cause of the social uplift through reasonable industrialisation.

…. Secretary of the Orissa Wildlife Society Biswajit Mohanty, who had filed the petition against the Centre’s decision to allow Vedanta to set up its aluminum refinery and undertake mining activities, said the SC had taken note of their concern. On behalf of the Lok Abhiyan, noted activist Prafulla Samantray had also filed a petition before the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) of the SC.

The social activists filed the petition alleging that if Vedanta was allowed to undertake mining activities, the whole biosphere of Niyamgiri would be affected. The two major rivers, Bansadhara and Nagabali, which originate from the hill, would disappear. Thus it would affect the whole tribal population of the southern parts of the State, they argued.

Taking note of the serious allegation, the CEC had sent a two-member expert team (SK Chadda and SC Shrama) to make a spot inquiry. The team visited Niyamgiri in December 2004. It submitted its report in January 2005. Later, the CEC started the hearing of the petitions. The CEC visited Lanjigarh, where the plant is coming up. It submitted its report to the SC in September 2005, reportedly suggesting that Vedanta should not be allowed to take up mining activities.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) granted environmental clearance for the project on September 22, 2004, and in its letter clearly specified that the source of bauxite for the refinery would be the Niyamgiri mine near Lanjigarh. This led to a furore among environmentalists, who argued that as it came under the Schedule V area of the Constitution, the environment clearance granted by MoEF and forest clearance should be reviewed.

Following is from PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=33004.

The State Government of Orissa has asked for Rs. 23 crores from Ministry of Environment & Forests to save the coastal areas of the State from losses due to sea tide. As per the information made available by the National Disaster Management Authority, the Government of India has formulated a National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP) to be implemented with World Bank assistance. One of the investment proposals received under the Project from Government of Orissa is on “Shelterbelt Plantation” in Balasore, Bhadrakh, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapada Districts at a total cost of about Rs.23 crore. The Project is yet to be posed to the World Bank for their appraisal and funding.

The Government of India has issued a Coastal Regulation Zone Notification in 1991 delineating the coastal areas into different zones and listing out permissible and non permissible activities. The activities which are permissible are appraised by duly constituted expert committee, wherever necessary, and decisions are taken such that environmental balance in the coastal areas are harmonized with activities taking place in that area.

This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Shri S. Regupathy in a written reply to question in the Rajya Sabha today.