___________

Following is from Dharitri.

Following is an excerpt from a PTI report.

the state-run power major NTPC is set to pump in over Rs 55,000 crore for additional capacity generation of 9,320mw by setting up two new plants and expanding the existing Talcher plant.

"Over Rs 55,000 crore will be invested in Orissa for new projects at Dadripali in Sundargarh district and Gajmara in the Dhenkanal-Angul belt and to expand the Talcher plant," NTPC regional executive director for East & North IB Pandey told reporters here today.

While the Dadripali plant, to be built in three phases, would have a capacity of 4,800mw with six units, the 3,200mw Gajmara plant would be set up in two stages, he said, adding land for them are likely to be available in about six months.

Following is an excerpt from a cleantechnica.com report.

NTPC Ltd., formerly known as National Thermal Power Corporation, is planning to develop 500MW wind and solar energy projects in the Indian state of Orissa. NTPC is India’s largest power generation company and generates a big majority of power from coal-fired power plants. However, the company is now foraying into renewable energy and low carbon intensive generation technologies like hydro, nuclear and renewables.

The company recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Orissa government in order to obtain approva for setting up the power plant. Orissa is a coastal state located in the south-eastern part of India. In addition to significant offshore wind resources, Orissa also blessed with substantial solar energy resource. The company has signed similar MoUs with the government agencies in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, all highly potential areas on India’s energy map.

Following is from a report in Business standard:

The Orissa government today cleared projects worth Rs 1,27, 727 crore in steel, aluminium, power, downstream and ore beneficiation sectors.

The list includes 3 projects in the steel sector, 2 projects in the aluminium sector, 6 projects in the power sector, one downstream unit, and two beneficiation and pelletisation units.

… enhancement of the steel capacity of Jindal Stainless Limited (JSL) from 1.6 million tonne per annum (mtpa) to 3.2 mtpa at Kalinganagr Industrial Complex at an investment of Rs 16,266 crore and enhancement of capacity of Visa Steel in the same location from 0.35 mtpa to 1.5 mtpa at an investment of Rs 4995 crore were approved by HLCA.

The public sector aluminum major Nalco’s proposal to set up a 0.5 mtpa alumina smelter and 1260 mw power plant in two phases (840Mw + 420 Mw) at an investment of Rs 16,345.89 crore was also approved. Though the company preferred to set up the project at Brajarajnagar, the location might change. The company is seeking 275.30 hectares of land for the smelter and 575.7 hectares for the power plant.

Similarly, the proposal of the Navayuga Steels for setting up a 12 mtpa port based steel complex at Astaranga in Puri district at an investment of Rs 34,000 crore was cleared by the HLCA. The project will come up in 4 phases and the government will not commit any raw material linkage to it.

Though the company requires 4000 acres of land, the government will assess the land requirement as per the benchmarking report after the company submits the detailed project report (DPR), the minister added.

The public sector National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) was given the green signal to set up a 3200 Mw coal based mega power plant at an investment of Rs19,840 crore near the village Gajamara in Dhenkanal district. It requires about 3000 acres of land for the project and will source water from Mahanadi.

However, Jindal Stainless’ proposal to set up 1000 Mw Independent Power Producer (IPP) at an investment of Rs 4090 crore in the same location did not find favour with HLCA with the committee asking the company to change the site of the project.

Other projects which received the nod of HLCA are Rs 6800 crore investment proposal of RSB Metal-tech for setting up 1.4 mtpa alumina refinery, 0.35 mtpa aluminium smelter and 900 Mw CPP at an investment of Rs 6800 crore, Kalinga Energy’s 1000Mw thermal power project at an investment of Rs 4261 crore at Babuchakuli, Arati Steel’s 500Mw thermal power project at Ghantikhal in Cuttack district, Rs 4994 crore investment proposal of Chambal Infrastructures and Ventures Limited for setting up of 1200Mw thermal power plant at Siaria in Dhenkanal district.

Besides, Hyderabad based Lanco Solar’s 250 Mw fully integrated plant to manufacture crystalline silicon solar cells at an investment of Rs 2800 crore in Dhenkanal district, Bhushan Power and Steel Limited (BPSL)’s downstream and ancillary complex in Sambalpur district at an investment of Rs 1953.87 crore, JSW Steel’s proposal to set up 7 mtpa iron ore beneficiation plant and 5 mtpa pelletisation plant at Kamalang in Sundergarh district at an investment of Rs 1450 crore were through in today’s meeting.

Besides, the proposal of Welspun Orissa Steel to set up a 4.5 mtpa beneficiation plant at Nayagarh in Keonjhar district and 4.4 mtpa pellet plant at Dhamra in Bhadrakh district with an envisaged investment of Rs 1963 crore, the proposal of Astaranga Power Company to set up a 2460 Mw power plant at Astaranga at an estimated cost of Rs 11,200 crore were approved by the HLCA.

However, the decision on the 700 mw (Rs 1007crore) power plant proposal of Ind Bharat Energy, 1320 mw (Rs 5604 crore) power plant proposal of Sahara India Power Corporation and the 1100 Mw (Rs 4810 crore ) power plant proposal of Visaka Thermal were deferred.

Following is Samaja’s report on this plan and what Orissa is asking in return.

Statesman reports that the Orissa government has asked MCL to provide jobs to displaced people. Following are some excerpts from that report.

The state government today directed Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd to provide jobs to all those affected or displaced persons within four weeks and also asked other PSUs ~ NTPC and Nalco ~ to furnish weekly progress reports on rehabilitation measures. The decisions were taken at a high level meeting convened by revenue minister Mr Manmohan Samal here today. …

Mr Samal today directed that all categories of land losers and affected persons ought to be provided with employment within four weeks. Interestingly, he is also believed to have told the Central PSU that they should go by the Land Acquisition Act and not the Coal Bearing Act. The implementation of Coal Bearing Act had created problems since much of the land was notified but lying unacquired physically for several years. In the process, the land owner was unable to either sell or do anything with the land. With regards to employment of affected persons, it is learnt that the contentious issue relates to what is categorised as “C” type affected persons. These were people who had lost their land practically and not their homestead land.

Last week transportation of coal from Mahanadi Coalfields Limited came to a grinding halt and NALCO and NTPC Talcher that depend on that coal got into a critical situation. Following are excerpts from a Newkerala news report that mentions why MCL got into that situation.

Sources said the land losers of Zillinda, Kandhal and Solod affected by Ananta and Bhubaneswari mines stopped Ananata, Jagananath and Bhubaneswari open cast mines and close down the concerned project officers’ offices since yesterday demanding the promised job to the oustees by Mahanadi Coalfield Limited (MCL).

The villagers alleged that MCL authorities did not meet their commitments to provide 80 jobs to them till date forcing them to go for strike.

Similarly the land oustees of Kandhal marched to Lingaraj mine linked to NTPC-kaniha yesterday and stopped the output protesting the non-availability of employment to them as promised by Lingaraj authorities.

Coal transportation from Hngula and Balaram mines had been hit for the last four days due to the road blockade by Soloda villagers demanding jobs.

Angul Collector Girish S N said the authorities were monitoring the situation and senior officials dealing with land acquisition and rehabilitation had been rushed to troubled areas to negotiate with the agitating villagers.

Kalinga Times reported on a letter that CM Naveen Patnaik wrote to the PM on this issue. Following are some excerpts:

In a letter to Singh on Monday, the Chief Minister said that MCL should continue supplying coal to National Aluminium Company (NALCO) and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) to help these industries continue uninterrupted power generation.

Blaming the MCL authorities for not extending the rehabilitation and resettlement benefits to the people affected by coal mining, Patnaik said the public sector undertaking should go as per the State’s R&R policy as the Centre was yet to adopt a new policy in this regard.

Extending R&R benefits to the families affected by the operations of MCL will go a long way in improving law and order situation in the region, Patnaik said.

In recent months there have been reports regarding how some R & R issues with respect to Hirakud dam oustees and SAIL Rourkela still remains unresolved after several decades. It seems that many public sector companies with their central government connections are arrogant and have not done R & R properly. As a result people do not trust R & R promises made by anyone (private or public companies) and as a result various projects that could help Orissa get out of the bottom, are getting inordinately delayed.

Following is somewhat of a dated collection on investments and investment plans in Orissa.

• Summary: [1], [2], [3:Interview with CM]
• New jobs: [1.5 lakhs new jobs]
• Directorate of Industries, Govt. of Orissa
• Education and Education related financing
  • Loans and insurance for college education:
    • a great Andhra bank scheme
    • An educational loan portal
    • Another educational loan portal
    • Yet another educational loan portal
    • A rediff article with pointers
  • Higher Education: [FinExp-Aug05]
  • Primary and Secondary Education: [Insurance-plan-Aug15-05], [Insurance-plan]
    Editor’s comment, Aug 14, 2005: The private engineering colleges and medical colleges should be encouraged to open one or more Class I-XII schools. In general, these private colleges should spend 10% on the above, 80% on their own stuff, and another 10% on post-graduate education. For the 10% parts they can either have their own ClassI-XII school and M.Tech/Phd Program or pay the amount to an appropriate fund.
    Editor’s comment, Aug 14, 2005: For Oriya medium students to compete well in national and international level exams and competitions, after class 7 one should have the option of pursuing science and social science either in English or Oriya. To overcome the worry that students will lose touch with Oriya by pursuing science and social science in English, from Class 7, Oriya should be split to two parts, and be assigned twice its current weightage. I.e., instead of 100 marks for Oriya, there will be 200 marks for Oriya. The two parts could be (i) grammar and vocabulary — similar to TOEFL and GRE, and (ii) Writing and literature. ( Some decisions related to this made by the Orissa government.)
• Information Technology: [TCS1], [TCS-2], [TCS-3], [Wipro-BPO-1], [WIPRO-2], [Wipro-land-bought], [other IT and BPO companies]
• Steel plants: Tatas, KK Birla Group, Jindals, Essar, Murugappas, MESCO, POSCO etc. [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6:Jindal], [7:mesco-insightOrissa-july22-05], [8: A summary article in May 05 Orissa Review], [Adhunik-Sundergarh], [Rungta,Bhusand,Jindal-JSPL,Titanium], [production in 9 plants], [More MOUs], [More MOUs2]
• Tatas – Steel plant@Duburi, TCS@BBSR, Gopalpur: [0: TATA news releases], [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6:Kalinganagar],
• POSCO: [1], [2], [3], [4]; [Forbes-MOU-22Jul05]; [Forbes-2-22Jul05]; [FinExp-MOU-22Ijul05]; [HindTimes-MOU-22Jul05]; [AustrFinRev-MOU-22Jul05]; [InsightOrissa-MOU-22Jul05]; [Some-Details-from-Insight-Orissa]; [Pluses-n-minuses:rediff]; [Impact-on-infr]; [Hindu-July10-05]; [Rebuttal-to-criticisms-july15-ToI]; [FinExpr]; [Taats vs POSCO] ; [3 POSCO subunits]; [POSCO sets up subsidiary:Aug 31’05], [land-acq], [90 percent in Orissa in favour], [identifies 2 mines]
• POSCO ancillaries and Indian partners: [1:steel pipes], [2:Indian partners]
  • Editor’s comment on July 4 2005: My impession based on reading the newspapers is that Orissa govt has probably become wary of some of the big Indian players after the TATAs taking advantage of them in Gopalpur, and other companies in other places. It seems like (from reading various reports: [0:a list from 1999-how many of them materialized?], [1] , [2], [see page 3], [4] ) the TATAs signed MOUs about plants and infrastructure etc. at Gopalpur and got mining leases but then kind of forgot about making the plants and building infrastructure but have been using the mines. They used excuses, some valid, regarding this and that infrastructure not being there. [They have signed something more recently; lets see if that is for real or a sham to get mining leases renewed. Some progress in regards to their promise seems to have taken place: a; b ] The expectation was that Gopalpur would be like another Rourkela or Jamshedpur. But nothing remotely like that has happened. Coming back to POSCO, the MOU seem to have many clauses that would prevent POSCO from taking advantage of Orissa without delivering on its promises. Also, if POSCO does something like the TATAS, its easy to fight them, unlike fighting the TATAs. Even saying something bad about the TATAs is a no-no in India. [Thus the government should be careful in any of its signing with the TATAs or similar big Indian powerhouses. It should make sure that any mining lease should be tied to the other promises very tightly, and without loopholes.] So I personally am hopeful that POSCO will have a big impact on Paradeep and Orissa, more than the impact of any other private company in Orissa. Plus the investment comes from outside India, not from inside India. Thus making more capital available to other projects in India. Also the government is right to not put its egg in one basket. It makes perfect sense to try different avenues: foreign investors such as POSCO as well as the various Indian companies.
• From Steel to automobiles/2-wheelers-n-beyond: [Ind-Exp-22ndJune05]; [TOI-July4-05:Kymco,Corus]; [Pioneer-July27-05:Kwang-Yang-Motors-Taiwan], [Mahindras:TOI-Aug05-05], [Mahindra:InsightOrissa]
• Refractories: [July9-05-Telegraph]
• Alumina/Aluminium: Hindalco [1]; Vedanta [a], [b:Vedanta cares]; [Dubal-L&T]; [alumina-refinery-smelter-Rayagada]
• Titanium complex at Chhatrapur. (The Samaja Aug 16th, 2005).
• Mining: [1],
• Refinery: [1]; [IOC-Paradeep-21-6-05]; [July12-FinExp], [IOC-on-schedule]
• Breweries: [United Breweries]
• Paper: [JKPaper]
• SEZs: [1]
  • Gopalpur: [july26-05]
  • Paradeep: [july26-05]
• Power: Current availability; [list-of-possibilities-fe-july24-05], [June2-05-Reliance]; [Reliance2]; [RPG-jun2405-Tel]; [Neyveli]; [MMTC-Paradeep-Sept12-05]
• Food processing: [Shrimp-Navayuga]
• Hospitals: [Planned Heart Institute]
• Hotels: [ Statesman Aug 18’05], [Buisness-Standard- Sept9], [OTDC-disvestment]
• In relation to other states of India: [1], [2]
• Kalinganagar/Duburi: VISA, Jindal, Neelachal Ispat Nigam, MESCO, Tatas(?) [Ref:InsightOrissa]
• Factories in neighbouring states — impact on Orissa infrastructure: [Mittal-Jharkhand]
  Editor’s comment on July 27, 2005: Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh are landlocked. Mineral and manufacturing plants in Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh would need access to ports. This will provide opportunity for Orissa to make its case (get Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh legislator’s support) and make further infrastructure development such as ports, roads and railways. In particular, Dhamara and Chandabali port, train lines to them such as Tata-Baripada-Balasore-Dhamara, Bimlagarh-Talcher-Paradeep, and Daitari-Bansapani-Haridaspur-Paradeep, and roads ( Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhatisgarh) to them. While Jharkhand plants can use Haldia port in West Bengal, for Chhatisgarh the closest ports are in Orissa (Dhamara, Paradeep, and Gopalpur). Since Haldia port is overloaded, even for Jharkhand easy accessibility to Orissa ports is important. [a step in this regard], [another step]
  28th July 2005: Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh should come together and jointly pursue several things. For example, an IIT in Rourkela (which has the best NIT among the three states) would benefit all the three states, as Rourkela is very close to both Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand. In return Orissa can support for an IIM in Bilaspur or Raipur. Good road and railway connectivity from Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand to Orissa ports will be beneficial to all. The three states can jointly promote cultural tourism to the tribal areas of the three states.
• Policies: [1]