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Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

… Balasore, which has around 70 per cent of the State’s plastic units, would soon turn into a plastic industry hub with this training centre while a plastic park is also in the offing and the work under the Industrial Up-gradation Scheme is in progress. Jena informed that Balasore is very strategically located between two upcoming Petrochemical Investment Regions at Nayachar, Haldia, and Paradip. There is potential for Balasore to be the hub of Plastics Industrial Corridor stretching on the East Coast of India.

Establishment of the APPTC at Balasore would act as a catalyst to stimulate growth of plastic industries in general and plastics processing industries in particular, he said. He said cooperation between the Centre and State is required for development.

State’s Minister of Industries and Steel and Mines Raghunath Mohanty said the APPTC’s intake for this year would be 150 and 100, respectively, for skilled and short-term courses while the full-fledged intake would be 480. The APPTC is being established by the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology (CIPET) on an area of 8 acres of land allotted by the State Government at a cost of `15 crore, which is being shared equally by the Central and State Governments.

Union Secretary of Chemicals & Petrochemicals M Raman informed that a proposal of the State Government to set up a PCPIR at Paradip has been recommended by the high-powered committee and its final approval is expected shortly. The total employment generation from the OPCPIR is expected to be about 6,48,000 persons, comprising of direct employment to 2.27 lakh and indirect employment to 4.21 lakh.

Balasore should also try to take advantage of its proximity to IIT Kharagpur.

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

Source said, the centre may come up at Baliapal, nearly 30 km from Balasore, where government buildings built at the cost of Rs 4.5 crore during the late 80s are lying unutilised. Last year an experts’ team from CIPET had visited the spot and submited a report to the government. The infrastructure has been built on around 150 acres of land under the rehabilitation package during the proposed National Test Range (NTR) which was stalled in 1992 due to vehement opposition.

Following is from the PIB release http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=66602.

Plastics have become the key drivers of innovation and application development. Plastics processing or product manufacturing industries is evincing increased competition worldwide due to globalization of the plastics trade. In the prevailing scenario of liberalization, an obvious preference goes to global supplier, who can deliver the qualitative products at any location within stipulated time frame across the globe. Due to globalization of trade and cost pressure, plastics industry in Indian context is looking forward to exploit the opportunities available in the export as well as domestic market. This would facilitate establishment of large-scale production facilities and processing plants to cater to the requirements of user industry.

Around 70% of the plastics industries of Orissa are situated in and around Balasore. It is also envisioned that during the end of XI Five Year Plan, around 100 more plastics processing industries are expected to be established. Establishment of Plastic Park and the upcoming Plastics Processing Industries in and around Balasore will boost the requirement of well trained technical manpower for the Plastics Industry. 

The raw materials availability for the plastic industries in Balasore can further be increased to ensure sustainable development as one petrochemical complex is coming up at Paradeep (to be developed by IOC). 

Balasore is also an industrially developed district, two sea ports are coming up near Dhamra and Chudamani. With the constant efforts of the local Member of Parliament and Minister of State for Chemicals & Fertilizers, Shri Srikant Kumar Jena, it has been decided to set up an Advanced Plastic Processing Technology Centre (APPTC) at Balasore to meet the increasing requirements of the trained technical manpower for the plastic industry. Establishing APPTC – a Unit of CIPET Bhubaneswar will not only result in fulfilling the requirement of additional skilled Technical Manpower in the area of Plastics Processing but also will facilitate in rendering the Technology Support Services. 

APPTC will fill up the demand & supply gap of skilled manpower of the processing industry in the Eastern region of the country by conducting long-term & short-term training programs in the areas of Plastics Processing Technologies. 

The Planning Commission has approved the establishment of APPTC in Balasore at a total project cost of Rs.1500 lacs. CIPET Corporate at Chennai would be the Apex Body directing and controlling the project activities as per the directives of Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals, Government of India. The State Government of Odisha has also agreed to share 50% of its cost and provide land for setting up of APPTC at Balasore. 

Benefits of Establishing the APPTC at Balasore: 

• During the first year of its establishment, the centre is expected to train & develop around 150 students in the field of plastic processing through long-term academic programmes and around 100 participants through short duration training programmes in the areas of plastic processing technology. 

• Once the APPTC become full-fledged, the total intake of the students for long term courses will be 480 for three long term courses. In addition, the APPTC will also train 250 technical personnel from plastic industry every year through short term technology upgradation programmes. 

• The APPTC centre at Balasore will also play a catalytic role in providing technology support services to the plastic & allied industries in around Balasore where a Plastic Park is being planned. Further, it is expected that more than 150 plastics processing / allied industries are likely to be started. This will boost the skilled manpower requirement in the area of plastics processing. In addition, as Balasore is well connected with other parts of the State and also the neighbouring States, the industries located at these places will also utilize the services of Balasore Plastics Park. 

The dream of establishing a dedicated specialized centre on “Advanced Plastic Processing Technology Centre – (APPTC)” at Balasore, Orissa – a unit of CIPET, Bhubaneswar at Balasore has become a reality mainly on account of constant persuasion and sustained efforts made by Minister of State for Chemicals & Fertilizers. 

DNM/PKM

This is good. But the publicity is somewhat disproportional with respect to only a 15 crore project out of which the state is responsible for 50%. Other central ministers get much more for their states. Some recent examples are:

• Mamata Banerjee’s gifts to W. Bengal with respect to Railways and metro.

• W. Bengal minister’s support to get approval of 500+ crores for converting BESU to IIEST.
• Recent attempts by Pranab Mukherjee to get 500 crores for IIT Kharagpur expansion.

Following was obtained from a pdf file at the IDCO web site.

Following is an excerpt from a report in TimesofIndia.

The Union government is planning to develop such parks in the state with state-of-the-art infrastructure for the plastic industry and if everything works out according to plan, Balasore will have the country’s first such park. Inspired by the success of software technology parks across the nation, the Centre is planning to set up these parks, which will provide raw materials, power and land for plastic companies.

Moreover, the companies will also be helped to market their products. These parks are expected to generate huge direct and indirect employment. A technical team led by Central Institute of Plastic Engineering and Technology director general S K Nayak, was recently here to survey the feasibility of the project. "We held a meeting with local industrialists who were given a broad idea about the plastic park and its facilities. The response was good. We will submit a report to the Union government and later have a discussion with the state government for land and other facilities. At least 250 acres of land is required for the project," said Nayak.

According to sources, Balasore, which is known as the plastic hub of the state, has about 42 plastic companies with a combined turnover of more than Rs 200 crore. While all the companies come under the small scale industry category, the range of products include plastic pipes, pipe fittings, furniture, woven sack bags, polythene bags and sheets and general moulded items.

"As plastic has become an integral part of everyday life, the Centre is planning the park, which would house at least 100 companies. Existing industries can shift their units to the park and new units can also be set up. Since several facilities are being offered at the park, it will attract new entrepreneurs. We are excited to have the park in the region," Balasore Chamber of Industries and Commerce president Himanshu Das said. "The park will promote development and growth of the plastic industry. It will provide land and efficient power supply at subsidised rate. There will be a bank, common raw material depot, testing centre, common tool room for maintenance and finally an effective marketing system within the park," he said.

This apart, the government of Orissa is also planning to start a "plastic cluster" at Balasore. The Union government has already approved 14 clusters out of 20 notified by the state government for Central assistance.

"Two proposals – one plastic cluster at Balasore and another engineering cluster at Mancheswar have been sent to the Union government for assistance under Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme. Each of these units will avail Rs 60 crore under the scheme," said an official. The team also visited some unutilized government buildings built at the cost of Rs 4.5 crore at Baliapal during the late 80s. The structures were built on around 150 acres of land under the rehabilitation package during the proposed National Test Range which was stalled in 1992 due to vehement opposition.

"We are planning to start the technical training institute here. …

Kudos to Balasore MP and MOS Srikant Jena for playing a major behind the scenes role on this. Now if only Hemanada Biswal, the chair of the labor committee which has a MOS rank, would show similar leadership with respect to Sundergarh and Rourkela. 

Following is an excerpt from a release by the Resident Commissioner of Orissa:

Shri Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister, Orissa met Shri Anand Sharma, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry at New Delhi and discussed various issues pertaining to development of Industry Clusters and handicrafts in Orissa.

… The Union Minister also agreed to the proposal of the State Government for providing infrastructure support for development of industrial clusters under the Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme (IIUS) of GoI for the clusters located at Balasore (Plastic Products Cluster) at a project cost of Rs 62.50 crore and another at Mancheswar (Engineering Cluster) at a project cost of Rs 61crore. He complimented the State Government for smooth implementation of the Metallurgical Cluster Project in Jajpur (Kalinganagar) which has already been sanctioned for Orissa under the IIUS.

Following is from Samaja:

In the following Business standard reports on progress on the proposed Aluminum park in Angul.

The proposed aluminium park of the public sector National Aluminium Company (Nalco) at Angul in Orissa, which was mired in uncertainty, is finally set to see the light of the day.

The proposed venture will be set up jointly by Nalco and the state owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa (Idco). The two partners are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard soon.

Sources said, Nalco and Idco will have equal stake in the project. …

“All the contentious issues have been resolved and the terms and conditions of the draft MoU have been agreed upon by both the partners. The signing of the MoU is a matter of technical formalities”, a senior official of the state industry department told Business Standard.

Sources said, the MoU will be signed by the end of this month and the chief minister Naveen Patnaik will lay the foundation stone for the project in the first week of September. The proposed park will come up adjacent to the existing smelter plant of Nalco at Angul.

The complex will house various downstream and ancillary aluminium industries. Though it was originally planned to develop the project over 200 acres, it has been decided to acquire 50 to 100 acres more to increase the size of the park. This will take care of the future growth requirement and creation of some social infrastructure.

… Sources said, the cost of developing the land in the park will be borne by Nalco and Idco equally and this will be recovered from the units which will come up in the park. An innovative pricing structure is proposed to be put in place for this.

The aluminium park, once fully developed, is expected to attract investment of Rs 300 to 400 crore. It may be noted, the project passed through uncertainty as the state government was earlier reluctant to join the project as a joint venture partner.