___________

Following is an excerpt from a Pioneer report

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday laid the foundation stone of the Semiconductor Technology Innovation Centre. The centre will be the first of its kind in the country and will mark the beginning of a new era in the development of the IT Industry in Orissa.

Silicon Park will be established in Infocity SEZ with total project outlay of Rs 80 crore over a period of five years. The centre would provide employment opportunities to 1,600 software professionals …

Laying the foundation stone, Patnaik said the centre would take up chip design, embedded software development for products used in IT, Telecommunication and emerging technologies. It will also provide an entrepreneurial business environment and a semiconductor product eco-system.

“My Government is actively considering declaring Electronics and hardware manufacturing as a thrust sector,” he said, adding that the State Government is pursuing an ambitious target of achieving one billion US dollar in software export from the State by 2012.

Chairman of the STG Pvt Ltd M Chandrasekhar Reddy and eminent scientist from Silicon Valley Damodar Reddy were present on the occasion.

The report in New Indian Express on the same event has the following extra information.

The Chief Minister announced that the State Government will set up three more IT special economic zones (SEZs) in the State.

One of them, the knowledge industry township, will be set up jointly with the Union Urban Development Ministry and NASSCOM while the second one will be established by DLF.

While the above report mentions about three new SEZ’s, it only talks about two. The following from Samaja mentions that the third one will be a BPO based SEZ.

Economic Times reported that

Larsen & Toubro, the country’s biggest engineering firm, will invest around Rs 400 crore in its proposed three million tonne alumina refinery joint venture with Dubai Aluminium Company (Dubal) in Orissa. It further said that "The total project cost would be Rs 15,000 crore. L&T would do the engineering, procurement and construction job for the project, which would cost around Rs 5,000 crore. The first phase of the plant at Rayagada with 1.5 million tons capacity is scheduled to be operational by 2010. In another similar report Zee News reported that Dubal will have the majority 74 per cent stake in the venture and the remaining 26 per cent will be with L&T.

Follow are excerpts from a Statesman report.

The high powered committee headed by chief secretary Mr Ajit Tripathy today cleared 16 investment proposals, entailing an investment of approximately Rs 30,000 crore.

The projects mainly in the power, steel, aluminium and cement sectors were amongst the 40 project proposals placed before the committee. There were three steel and three power projects amongst the 16 which got the nod today.

Significantly while the Ashapura mines chemicals project proposal for a aluminium refinery was approved, the aluminium project of IMFA Group headed by Dr Bansidhar Panda was held up.

… two task forces had been constituted to further evaluate the proposals in the cement and power sectors. The Industry secretary will head the task force for cement sector projects while the development commissioner will be in charge of the task force for power projects, …

The power projects cleared by the committee today included the Bhusan Energy project which intends to establish a 2,000 MW thermal power plant at Angul with an investment of Rs 8,483 crore. The Visa Power Limited’s 1,000 mw Thermal Power plant at Brhamnabasta in Cuttack district at a cost of Rs 3,698 crore was also cleared while the third power project was of Monnet Energy at Sundergarh. It will be a 1,000 mw plant.

The Rs 4,232 crore aluminium project of Ashpura Mines Chemicals to come up in Koraput district was cleared. It aims at setting up a 5 lakh ton refinery and a 1.5 lakh ton smelter plant besides having a 300 MW captive power plant .

The Committee approved the three new steel plant projects and the expansion of existing five steel projects in the state.

Bonei Industry company’s project to set up a plant at Sundergarh at a cost of Rs 302 crore, M/s Rungta Sons Ltd’s proposal to set up a steel plant at Barmunda at a cost of Rs 930 crore and Free Grade company Ltd’s steel plant at Dhenkanal at a cost of Rs 603 crore were also cleared.

Expansion proposals of SMC Power Generation and MSP Mettalics at Jharsuguda, Braja Ispat, Rourkela and the Keonjhar Orient Ispat were given the go ahead by the committee.

ACC Cement’s proposal for investment of Rs 400 crore for its capacity development was approved while Goa Carbons Ltd’s proposal for a CPC coke plant with an investment of Rs 225 crore was also cleared.

(1) ECOR GM Shri Surendra Singh Khurana in his Independence Day address (available at http://eastcoastrailway.gov.in/custom/press_release/index.php) while talking about ECOR, said:

 “With only 4% of the track of Indian Railways, we cater for about 12% of total loading of Indian railway and about 7% of total earning of IR.”

(2) From http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/irfca/messages

For the 2003-2004 and 2004-05 the working expense as part of gross earnings of the ECOR zone is the second best at 66.64% and 61.75% respectively.

• The profit making zones in those years were
  • South east central (62.8% and 56.1%),
  • ECOR (66.64% and 61.75%),
  • North central (76.33% and 66.71%),
  • Central (80.29% and 82.48%),
  • South eastern (81.24% and 83.51%),
  • South Central (85.72% and 83.62%),
  • West Central (80.99% and 84.08%),
  • South Western (91.35% and 86.15%),
  • Western (93.21% and 90.85%),
  • Northern (91.08% and 92.89%) and
  • East Central (93.65% and 98.9%).

• The loss making zones were:
  • metro Kolkata (247% and 264.38%),
  • North Eastern (151.93% and 160.88%),
  • Northeast Frontier (147.98% and 159.45%),
  • Eastern (161.3% and 152.84%),
  • Southern (118.55% and 120.79%) and
  • North Western ( 106.26% and 104.98%).

(3) Based on (1) and (2) above ECOR probably makes about 10% of Indian Railways profit.

Why does not ECOR have the track length commensurate with the earnings it makes?

Why are no serious efforts being made to correct this; especially with many planned lines being given only minimal annual budgets which in many cases are less than the annual inflation.

In terms of rail density: the average rail density (2004-05) for India is 19.13; the rail density is highest in Delhi (138.2) followed by West Bengal (43.4), Punjab (41.6), Haryana (36.1), Bihar (35.9), Uttar Pradesh (35.8), etc. while Chhatisgarh (8.6) and Orissa (14.6) are among the states with low rail densities.

(6) The data from (1-3) and (5) show that while Indian Railways is making a lot of revenue and profit from ECOR (big part of which is in Orissa) and also SER (part of which is in Orissa), both ECOR and Orissa have been grossly neglected. This is true about the past; what about the future?

Mr V. N. Mathur, Member (Traffic) of the Railway Board is reported to have said:

“We’ve submitted to the Planning Commission a Rs 251,000-crore proposal for implementation by the end of the Eleventh Plan. We’ve indicated mobilisation of Rs 90,000 crore from within and 29 per cent of the projected estimate by way of market borrowing. For the balance, we may have to approach the government for support. But then nothing has yet been finalised.”

 (8) Many expensive and highflying plans by Indian Railways for the 11^th plan, but most bypass Orissa and ECOR.

(8A) Freight Corridor: Various news reports suggest that the 11^th plan (next 5-7 years) will take up the western and eastern corridors.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/9030.html

Western Corridor: 1,483-km Delhi-Mumbai route

http://www.hindu.com/2006/09/17/stories/2006091708640400.htm reports that the “Chennai-Kolkata and Chennai-Mumbai corridors will be included in the second phase of the Dedicated Freight Corridor Project.” 

(8B) High Speed Corridors:

“Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar, Mumbai-Baroda-Ahmedabad, Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore and Howrah-Asansol-Patna — were announced in the current rail budget.”

(8C) Metro Rails and rapid transit systems: From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_in_India#Metro   and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalore_Metro

The following are the existing or under construction/expansion metro rail projects.

• Delhi Metro
• Hyderabad Metro
• Kolkata Metro
• Kolkata Suburban Railway
• Lucknow MEMU 
• Chennai Metro
• Mumbai Suburban Railway
• Bangalore Metro
• Mumbai Metro •
• Thane Metro
• In planning:
  • Ahmedabad Metro
  • Kochi Metro
  • Goa
  • Pune

(9) In essence revenue and profit generated in ECOR is being ploughed into other parts of India, which by itself is not wrong as Orissa is a part of India, but lets analyze who are the losers: the adivasi and backward areas of Orissa (and hence of India) who are backward partly because lack of proper connectivity, and this neglect continues to keep them backward and prevents them from catching up.

No, here are the data and following it is what planning commission teams have themselves said.

(10) The tribal population percentage of the KBK districts are as follows:
Malkangiri 58.36% (+19.96% SC), Rayagada 56.04% (+14.28% SC), Nabarangpur 55.27% (+15.09% SC), Koraput 50.67% (+13.41% SC), Nuapada 35.95% (+13.09% SC), Kalahandi 28.88% (+17.01% SC), Sonepur 22.11% (+9.5% SC), Balangir 22.06% (+15.39% SC). Two adjacent districts also have high tribal population. They are Kandhamala 51.51% (+18.21% SC) and Gajapati 47.88% (+8.77% SC).  Tirbal percentage of Mayurbhanj is 57.87% and Sundergarh is 50.74%.

(11) The literacy rates in the KBK districts are abysmally low. Malkangiri 31.26%, Nabarangpur 34.26%, Rayagada 35.61%, Koraput 36.2%, Nuapada 42.29%, Kalahandi 46.2%, Balangir 54.93%, Sonepur 64.07%. Two adjacent districts also have low literacy: Gajapati 41.73% and Kandhamala 52.95%. The state average is 63.1%.

(12) Population below the poverty line in southern Orissa (of which KBK is a part) is reported to be 89.17% of the people according to the 1999-2000 NSS data and 72% of the families according to the 1997 census.

(13) From http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article174.html

Table 1 provides State level data on poverty ratios during 2004-05. The lowest poverty ratio was 5.4 per cent for Jammu and Kashmir and highest poverty ratio was for Orissa (46.4 per cent). States with poverty ratio of less than 15 per cent were Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh. As against them, States with poverty ratio above 30 per cent were Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Orissa.

Five States, namely, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa accounted for 166 million poor (about 55 per cent of the total poor estimated at 302 million). This shows the high concentration of poor in these five States.

(14) Planning Commission: The Planning Commission in its report comparing the development status of economic infrastructure of Orissa, especially the KBK region, vis-à-vis the country says:

"Railways have always played an important role in economic development and rapid social transformation in all parts of the globe. It is one of the key economic infrastructures. However, it is most unfortunate that in a poor and backward state like Orissa, development of rail networks has received much less attention of the Central Government in the post-independence period. There are as many as seven districts like Boudh, Kandhamal, Deogarh, Nayagarh, Kendrapara, Malkangiri and Nabarangpur out of the 30 districts of the state, which do not have any railway line passing through them. In the year 1998-99, the density of railway route length per 1000 sq. km of area in Orissa was only 15.03 km as against 42.66 km in West Bengal and 19.11 km. at all-India level”.

 (15) What we are asking with respect to KBK and adivasi areas of Orissa?

We are asking the current PM and the current planning commission to pay attention to what the planning commission report says in (15) and the data in (11)-(14).

In particular, we would like the following lines to be completed during the 11^th plan.

1)     Khurda – Balangir (This brings Railways to districts of Boudha, Sonepur and Nayagarh and bring Balangir – a part of KBK- closer to the state capital. This line of 290 km, initially budgeted at 700 crores, has all the necessary studies done, and its survey was complete before May 2004. It should be targeted to be completed within the next 2-3 years.)

2)     Gunupur-Theruvali (The Orissa govt. is ready to use PPP for this. This should also be done in 2-3 years together with the broad gauge conversion of Naupada-Gunupur line)

Lanjigarh Rd – Bhawanipatna – Junagarh – Nabarangpur- Jeypore – Malkangiri – Bhadrachalam Rd in Andhra Pradesh. (The first phase of this Lanjigarh Rd – Junagarh is 56 km with an estimated cost of 120 crores. 15% of it was completed before May 2004. This should be completed immediately within 1-2 years. This line lies completely within the KBK districts and when finished will bring Railways to the districts of Nabarangpur and Malkangiri. Moreover, the Malkangiri-Bhadrachalam Rd part could go through a bit of Chhatisgrah. This line will create a shorter and alternative Ranchi-Hyderabad route and bring connectivity to an area that is currently havited by many extremist groups. Not much has been done beyond Junagarh, so this must be immediately approved and work started so that the line gets completed by the end of the 11^th plan.)

Talcher – Bimlagarh (This is 154 km long and was estimated at Rs 727 crore. This will bring the tribal district of Sundergarh much closer to Orissa, connect a dangling line, and will bring passenger rail to big parts of Sundergarh. This should be completed in 3-4 years.)

(These lines connect dangling lines and will bring passenger rail to big parts of the tribal district of Mayurbhanj. Not much has been done, so this must be immediately approved and work started so that the line gets completed by the end of the 11^th plan.)

Badampahar-Keonjhar (This line also  connecst dangling lines and will bring passenger rail to big parts of the tribal district of Mayurbhanj. Not much has been done, so this must be immediately approved and work started so that the line gets completed by the end of the 11^th plan.)

1. Parlakhemundi, the district headquarter of Gajapati (part of KBK+) will be on Broad gauge rail and will be 305 kms from Bhubaneswar (the state capital).
2. Sonepur, the district HQ of Sonepur district will be on connected by rail and will be 259 kms from Bhubaneswar (the state capital).
3. Boudh, the district HQ of Boudha district will be connected by Rail and will be 217 kms from Bhubaneswar (the state capital).
4. Nayagarha, the district HQ of Nayagarha district will be connected by Rail and will be 84 kms from Bhubaneswar (the state capital).
5. Bhawanipatna, the district HQ of Kalahandi district (part of KBK) will be connected by Rail and will be 450 kms from Bhubaneswar via Balangir and 504 kms from Bhubaneswar (the state capital) via Gunupur.
6. Malkangiri, the district HQ of Malkangiri district (part of KBK) will  be connected by Rail.
7. Nabrangpur, the district HQ of Nabrangpur district (part of KBK) will be connected by Rail.
8. Balangir, the district HQ of Balangir district will now be 309 kms from Bhubaneswar instead of the earlier 397 kms.
9. Nawapara Rd, near the district HQ of Nawapara district will now be 459 kms from Bhubaneswar instead of the earlier 547 kms.
10. Rayagada, the district HQ of Rayagada district will now be 419 kms from Bhubaneswar instead of the earlier 502 kms.
11. Koraput, the district HQ of Koraput district will now be 573 kms from Bhubaneswar instead of the earlier 676 kms.
12. Titlagarh, a major junction will now be 373 kms from Bhubaneswar instead of the earlier 461 kms.
13. There will be an alternate shorter path from Ranchi to Hyderabad via Titlagarh-Bhawanipatna-Nabrangpur-Jeypore-Malkangiri-Bhadrachalam Rd

(17) Is the Indian railway under the UPA government neglecting Orissa than the previous government?

(18) In the 2004 railway budget given at http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=869 (items 35,37) the then Railway Minister Nitish Kumar had proposed the Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana which aimed to complete lines like Khurda-Balangir within the next 5 years. This has been completely sidelined by the UPA government. This is what he said.

(18 A) Following is the exact wording, in items 35 and 37 of the 2004 Railway budget.

    * 35. Railways have a large shelf of over 230 projects worth about Rs. 43,000 cr, for construction of New Lines, Gauge Conversion, Doubling, Electrification and Metropolitan Transport Projects. Even with the enhanced budgetary support, non-budgetary initiatives under National Rail Vikas Yojana and other cost sharing mechanisms apart from Defence funding of some projects of strategic importance, there will still be projects valuing Rs. 20,000 cr which would remain unfinished even after the next five years. A large number of these have been sanctioned on socio economic considerations with the intention of connecting remote and backward areas with the rail network. However their progress is very slow on account of inadequate funding, which causes dissatisfaction. Connecting these areas with the rail network will facilitate the economic and social development of these areas and will provide major employment opportunities during construction and thereafter. Keeping these factors in mind, it has been decided to speed up the execution and completion of these projects also in the next five years. I am happy to inform the House that this would be done through an ambitious ‘Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana’, with an additional outlay of Rs. 20,000 crore.
    *

    * 37. This decision to accelerate the completion of all projects in five years is expected, on a broad estimate, to provide yearly employment to about 3 lakh persons during the construction period. Once opened for traffic, these lines would also require about 18000 persons per year for normal maintenance and operations, on incremental basis. Apart from this, it is expected that there will be scope for indirect employment of nearly 55000 persons per year. The ‘Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana’ will go a long way in changing the economic and social scenario of the remote and backward regions of the country and bringing the people of these areas into the mainstream. Further, the demand for steel, cement, rolling stock, fittings, components, plant and machinery will also be generated, boosting the economic growth of the entire country.

(18 B) World Bank:

http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/240060/India%20%20financing%20infrastructure%20-%20addressing%20constraints%20and%20challenges.pdf
June 2006 report (page 70 above Table A8)

The second project envisaged by the railways was announced in the interim Budget of 2004- 05 and is called Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana (RARSY). This involves executing and completing hitherto sanctioned projects related to connecting remote and backward areas with the rail network till 2010. The total investments in these projects is valued at Rs.200 billion. Presumably this is to be entirely funded by budget
support.

(18 C)   http://164.100.24.208/ls/CommitteeR/Railways/16th-Report.pdf
Railway Standing Committee Report 2005-06

Page 19:

3.11 In response to the concern of the Committee as to why the completion targets of the projects are not being fixed, the Chairman, Railway Board stated as under:-

"most of these projects will not be completed in the next few years. In fact, the projects where target has not been given is because normally we give targets for projects which are going to be over in the next two to three years.  But where it is going to be a distant period and where we do not know as to how much funds would be allocated for these projects, we do not give targets for those projects. So, wherever targets are given these are the projects which will take more than two to three years to get completed depending on how much funds are given. On our part, we have tried to revive the CapitalFund to see that we can put in more money.

3.12 In the absence of adequate internal generation of revenues by the Railways,
the following projects has been declared by the Government as the national Projects in the National interest. The funding for these projects are ensured by the Central Exchequer in the form of additional Budgetary Support to the Railways.

(18 D) Summing up this point:

In summary, based on earlier planning commission report as excerpted in (14) the 2004 Rail budget had the scheme RARSY which would have completed KBK connectivity lines like Khurda-Blangir. But the UPA government has buried that plan and has talked about burdening the state government for these lines, which since they can not afford, basically means abandoning these lines. This approach needs to be reversed and while India and Indian Railway marches ahead it must not forget the backward and adivasi areas of India and Orissa; especially when it makes money from transporting freight (minerals) from these areas.

(19.5) While the above are finished during the 11^th plan, we will patiently wait for the 12^th plan

• for the 2^nd phase of freight corridor involving Howrah-Chennai that will pass through Orissa;
• for high speed rail between Howrah-Bhubaneswar-Visakhapatnam, Visakhapatnam-Hyderabad, and Visakhapatnam-Chennai;
• for a metro rail for greater Bhubaneswar; and
• additional lines such as Jaleshwar-Digha, Berhampur-Phulbani, Bargarh-Nawapara Road and Talcher-Berhampur.

Following are excerpts from a report in english.chosun.com.

… After a rough start, POSCO is expected to finally have a site allocated for a planned steel mill in India, while an investment in a new Vietnam steel mill is likely to move ahead in October.

According to POSCO on Wednesday, the Indian government recently made it known that they plan to determine whether to give environmental clearance for the 4,004 acre site in Paradip in the province of Orissa.

Some 3,566 acres or 89.1 percent of the site of the planned one-stop steel system belongs to the government. Of that, 3,097 acres (86.9 percent) is forest land. For now, POSCO has only secured 193 acres (4.8 percent).

A POSCO official said, "The final decision has not yet been made, but we heard that the site might be released from the forest zone soon. The state-owned land accounts for nearly 90 percent of our site. In other words, if the area is released from the forest zone, the biggest obstacle to our effort to secure the site disappears."

Following are excerpts from a Telegraph report.

Chambal Infrastructure Ventures Limited — of the KK Birla group — today expressed interest in setting up a 2,000MW thermal power plant at an estimated cost of Rs 9,000 crore.

H.S. Bawa, the managing director of Zuari Industries and senior vice-president of Chambal Fertiliser and Chemicals Limited, made a presentation before chief minister Naveen Patnaik this evening regarding the matter. Bawa expressed the multinational’s interest in the project.

In fact, the firm has already applied for 2,000 acre near Siaria in Dhenkanal.

… It had also offered to set up a thermal power plant in a joint venture with PSUs.

The proposal’s appraisal would be made by the state-run Industrial Promotion and Investment Limited, which is a nodal agency for industrial projects.

In turn the agency examines projects before they are referred to a single window clearance committee, which is headed by the chief minister himself.

Meanwhile, the company has applied to the coal ministry for blocks. It has also applied to the water resources department to seek permission to use river water for plants.

If the proposal is cleared by the government, Chambal Infrastructure Venture Limited will be the 14th company to sign an MoU with Orissa government to set up a thermal power plant in Orissa.

Already 13 power companies have signed MoUs for setting up plants with a total capacity of 16,000MW and for am investment of Rs 70,000 crore.

Many have already acquired land and obtained environment clearance, as well as, permission for industrial water use.

Two to three firms have also been allotted coal blocks, Patro added.

Construction of power plants proposed to be set up by Vedanta Power Limited has already started in Jharsuguda.

Following is Samaja’s report on this.

The following article from Samaja explains why people in Orissa (and India) do not believe companies’ promises. If what the article says is true it is shameful on the part of Tatas to behave that way.

Following are some excerpts from a PTI report in Economic Times.

Setting at rest speculation on the fate of its Rs 52,000 crore steel project, South Korean giant Posco has decided to begin construction work on the 12 million tonne plant in Orissa by October.

“We will begin construction work of our 12 MT project in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district by October on whatever land we have acquired so far,” Posco India Chairman and Managing Director Soung Sik Cho said. …

“We believe things have undergone a sea-change during the last few months. People are clearly convinced that they will benefit from the project. Now they have a better understanding of the entire situation,” he reasoned.

Posco was also enthused after the union government gave environmental approval to the project. Moreover, the Naveen Patnaik government in Orissa has been asked by the Centre to take the mega investment process forward.

“Actually things are now looking much brighter. We have also received the official nod for our captive port project at Jatadhari, which has also encouraged us,” Cho pointed out.

The Korean steel giant has decided to begin construction work initially on 400 acres of non-forest land, and then on the revenue land to be given to it by the Orissa government.

“Now the only issue remains to be resolved is granting captive iron ore mines to us. But here also I believe things are moving in the right direction,” Cho said.

Some of the earlier news reports on national waterways in Orissa are linked from this site. Following is the latest development, as reported in an Indian Express article. Excerpts:

The Parliamentary Standing Committee has shown the green signal to two new national waterways in West Bengal-Orissa and Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu even as it called for an integrated transport policy and an institutional framework for inland water transport. … The other waterway—Talcher-Dhamra stretch of the Brahmni-Kharsua-Dhamra Rivers, Goenkhali-Charbatia stretch of the East Coast canal, Charbatia-Dhamra stretch of Matai River and Mahandai delta rivers between Mangalgadi and Paradip is also up for the national waterway status. Around 18.07 million tonnes of inland water transport traffic is expected to be carried out on the proposed waterway after its full development in eight years time. The traffic is expected to be handled at four terminals—Talcher, Nasirabd, Balasore and Rajnagar and the major cargoes are coal, fertiliser, cement, iron ore, agricultural and industrial products. The Standing Committee, however, has recommended the Government to prepare the road map for an integrated transport policy to include inland water transport, coastal shipping, civil aviation, road transport & highways for enabling better inter-connectivity amongst multiple modes of transport. The Committee has also called for provision of an institutional framework for development of IWT sector so as to increase capacity of IWT agencies, increased cost recovery and commercialisation of IWT industries. In case of the West Bengal-Orissa waterway, the Committee has suggested that another terminal be developed at Geonkhali in West Bengal to enable better traffic handling. It was also noted by the panel that there’s need to develop an action plan to address the growing demand of repair and service facilities of IWT vessels.

The final step for the bill would be to getting approval in both houses of the parliament.

Following up on the standing committee’s recommendation it may be appropriate to establish an airport near Jenapur-Kabatabandha as the ECOR Howrah-Chennai Railway line and NH 200 (Chandikhol-Sukinda-Talcher) intersects the national waterway at that point; NH 5A (Chandikhol-Paradip), NH 5 (Panikoili-Chandikhol) and NH 215 (Panikoili-Keonjhar) are close by; Haridaspur – Paradeep railway line will start very near to that point; Jakhapura-Banspani line also starts close to that point and that airport will serve the greater Kalinga Nagar area where multiple steel plants and other plants are coming up. Going further on that, the Orissa government is supposed to have made a master plan for Kalinga nagar. Following is an excerpt from a year old report (May 28, 2006) in Steelguru on that. (See also this New Indian Express report)

Orissa government has decided to prepare a master plan for Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district. South Africa based Lea Associates will prepare the master plan in collaboration with School of Planning and Architect, New Delhi and the Centre for Environment and Planning. The master plan will be completed by July. Kalinga Nagar Industrial Area will be developed for a population of over 10 lakh keeping an eye on 2025 and will be extended to 177 square kilometers. As per the draft, the KNIA will be extended to 134 villages. So far 112 villages have been included in the industrial area. About 1 million hectare land will be acquired by the Government in a phased manner for the development of the area. According to the draft plan, 68 square kilometer out of the total area will be reserved for town planning. About 89 square kilometer will be earmarked for industrial units while 20 square kilometer will be reserved for development of different infrastructure including bus stand, hotels, schools and hospital. Decision has also been taken to set up Kalinga Nagar Development Authority.

Following is from this PIB release.

The total number of land oustees for National Aluminium Company Limited(NALCO)’s Mines & Refinery Complex, Damanjodi is 600 and for its Smelter & Power Complex, Angul is 35. As a part of rehabilitation policy, NALCO at its initial stage, had formulated a policy for providing employment to one able bodied member of each oustee family subject to suitability of candidate and availability of vacancy. Out of 600 land oustees at Damanjodi, one member each from 591 land oustees has been provided employment and out of 35 at Angul, 34 have been given employment in the Company.

NALCO has intimated that the Company stands committed to provide employment to at least one member of each land oustee family. However, the Company has not been able to provide employment in respect of the remaining oustees as on date due to reasons like non-determination of bonafide nominees, lack of response from the families, etc.

Above information was given by the Minister of State for Mines Dr. T. Subbarami Reddy in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

Following are excerpts from an azom.com report.

Outotec has been awarded a contract by Tata Steel for the design and basic engineering of an iron ore sinter plant, supply of proprietary equipment and provision of supervisory services for Tata Steel’s new Kalinganagar steel plant project in India. The contract value is around EUR 35 million.

… Outotec’s delivery is part of the first phase of the project and it will be the largest iron ore sinter plant in India to date.

The local portion of the sinter plant project will be executed by Larsen & Toubro Ltd, …

Following is an excerpt from an Economic Times report.

Vodafone Essar has silently kicked off the groundwork in the run-up to launching greenfield cellular networks in six new circles – Orissa, Bihar, Assam, North East, Himachal Pradesh and J&K – where the licences are held through its wholly-owned subsidiary Vodafone Essar Spacetel (formerly, Essar Spacetel). For starters, the company’s project offices in Bhubaneswar, Patna and Guwahati are abuzz with activity these days.

Though Vodafone Essar Spacetel’s staff strength in these locations is skeletal, team leaders are trying to assess the appetite for cellular services in these eastern markets that are currently serviced by four GSM service providers – Bharti Airtel, BSNL-CellOne, Reliance Telecom and Dishnet Wireless.

Following are excerpts from a Sambada report.

Following are excerpts from a New Kerala report on this.

Three power distribution companies have made a project outlay of Rs 50 crore to upgrade their infrastructure to supply quality power … to their customers.

The companies– Wesco, Nesco and Southco had submitted a detail plan of expenditure to the Electricity Regulatory Commission in this regard.

According to sources, the companies have geared up their machinery to supply uninterrupted power to high tension and extra high tension consumers.

A team comprising members from Grid Corporation of Orissa, the three distribution companies and OPTCL had been chalking out plans to provide power to upcoming industries and new consumers on demand.

A plan to reduce the transmission and distribution loss by 15 per cent was being finalised and would soon be submitted to the GRIDCO, sources said.

The companies also urged the power ministry to complete the existing projects under the Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme.

A Statesman report, gives additional context to this. Following are some excerpts.

… three private distribution companies run by Reliance Energy has finally detailed its proposed funding and achievements.

In a situation where tariff has remained stagnant over 7 years , the company has maintained the system infrastructure with minimum spending. It has provided uninterrupted power and electricity to 1500 villages. The three distribution companies- Wesco, Southco and Nesco have also been regular in paying bulk supply bills to Gridco, salaries to employees etc noted Reliance Energy.

It is important to note that the energy minister, … had expressed his dissatisfaction with the company due to their lack of investment and the litigation over payment of dues. The chief minister had directed the energy department to prepare a detailed note and call the top brass of Reliance Energy for discussions.

Apparently jolted to action, the Reliance Energy has circulated a release stating that it has taken up up-rating and upgradation of the distribution infrastructure with an immediate outlay of Rs 50 crore.

It also claimed that in view of the growing ancillary, medium and large industries that were coming up in the state, a multidisciplinary team with members from Gridco, the three distribution companies and the power trading corporation has been formed to work out a strategy for quality power supply to such units. The distribution companies are also persuading the Ministry of Power to complete the existing APDRP works while the state government has also initiated a process to obtain a sanction of Rs 800 crore for the second phase, under APDRP, for the companies.

The distribution companies are also implementing the Biju Gramin Jyoti Yojana , while also finalizing their performance targets and Action Plan that will help reduce the transmission and distribution loss to the extent of 15 per cent as envisaged earlier.

Following are excerpts on this from a report in Pioneer.

The Centre has allocated coal blocks to three companies of the State. These three companies include Orissa Power Generation Corporation (OPGC), Orissa Hydo Power Corporation (OHPC) and Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC). …

In Baitarani West Coal block, Centre has given the rights of exploration to OHPC, State Electricity Board of Kerala and Power Corporation of Gujurat. All of them have been allotted coal blocks to the tune of 200 million tonne. OPGC has got two coal blocks. It has got the Manoharpur and Manoharpur deep side coal block. It has got 532 million tonne of coals.

In the Utkal D- Coal block site, OMC has got 120 million tonne. It has also got 350 million tonne of coal blocks in the Telisahi coal block of Nuagaon.

Andhra Pradesh has also got the 350 million tonne of coal from this site. Mandakini Coal block has been distributed among the four States. Meghalaya and Assam are the important beneficiaries.

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

Economics Times reports on such an effort. I hope Orissa government is aware of this and is making pitches for one of the locations in Orissa. Following are excerpts from the Economic Times report.

THE government is planning to build 6-7 new IT townships, called knowledge townships, close to major urban centres and international airports. The residential townships will be based on the walk-to-work concept. This means the professionals working there will be encouraged to live close to the workplace.

The companies setting up units in the townships may be extended tax sops under either the software technology park (STP) or special economic zone (SEZ) scheme. Each township would have a minimum 10-hectare (1 hectare = 2.471 acres) built-up area to make it compliant with FDI rules relating to investment in real estate. Each township is likely to entail an investment of Rs 500-650 crore, depending on the area.

A committee comprising members from the PMO, ministry of IT & telecom, urban development, civil aviation, Dipp along with Nasscom has identified several areas for setting up the knowledge hubs.

Sources in the committee said that these proposed townships will be extension of satellite towns like Gurgaon (to be called Gurgaon Plus). Similarly the township near Mohali will be called Mohali Plus. The first of these new townships is expected to come up by 2012 and the rest by 2015.

… services like IT and BPO will be encouraged in these units.

Many domestic and foreign real estate players have expressed interest in owning land and build such townships.

“We want each township to be FDI compliant so that they can attract foreign expertise,” a senior DIPP official said. Every township would be a special purpose vehicle where states and developers would have stakes.

Urban development secretary M Ramachandran said that his ministry would advise the committee on facilities like water, electricity, drainage and other civic facilities. “We will also help in developing the structures,” he said.

“The townships may also have an IIT/IIM or such academic institutions to build an ecosystem. For tax sops, we are pushing for extension of STP scheme else the companies can also opt for SEZ status,” said Nasscom president Kiran Karnik. The townships will come complete with educational, recreational/amusement and healthcare infrastructure.

“The basic reason for proposing such townships is the existing saturation in real estate and infrastructure amongst existing IT hubs,” Mr Karnik added.

Gurgaon real estate rentals have shot up meteorically in the recent past while Bangalore doesn’t have any real estate. …

Currently, Mohali, Mysore, Noida and Gurgaon have come up as satellite townships to major state capitals, most of which have international airports.

… SEZs offer a five-year 100% tax exemption with two subsequent five-year exemptions of 70% and 50% to units.

Business standard reports on this. Following are some excerpts.

 The Thapar-owned Ballarpur Industries Ltd (Bilt) power outfit BILT Power proposes to set up a 1,200-Mw independent power plant (IPP) in Orissa at an investment of around Rs 6,000 crore.

… BILT Power is expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state government soon.

Funds for the project would be sourced through loans from banks and financial institutions (FIs), of which 70 per cent would be debt and 30 per cent would come in as promoters’ equity.

BILT Power Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Anil Bhargava told Business Standard, “The detailed project report and feasibility study reports have already been submitted to the government. We are just awaiting the government nod to go ahead with the project.”

Bilt Power has already cleared the screening committee process for setting up the plant. Requirements for setting up the IPP has been forwarded to the state government.

The IPP is proposed to be set up in Choudwar on 950 acres. The Thapars already have paper production facilities in the state. They also have a captive power plant (CPP) at Sewa in Koraput district of the state.

Currently, BILT Power aggregates 100 Mw of CPP capacity at Sewa, Yamunanagar in Haryana and two plants each at Pune and Ballarshah in Maharashtra.

These plants have capacities between 25 Mw and 30 Mw each. Bilt Power has applied for allotment of coal blocks at Mandakini in the Talcher Coalfields of Orissa.

S Jagdev, head, corporate affairs, (eastern region), Bilt, said, “About 6 million tonne (MT) of coal would be required annually to feed the power plant.”

Earlier we reported on a news item on this in an English media. Following is Samaja’s take on this.

The Hindu reports that environmental clearance has been granted to POSCO steel plant. POSCO has earmarked 1,525 crores for environmental pollution control as per the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) as well as the state government conditions. Excerpts:

“The Ministry of Environment and Forests has given the environmental clearance for Posco’s mega steel project at Kujang near Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa,” highly-placed official sources said.The Korean steel giant had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Orissa government in June 2005 pledging an investment of Rs 52,000 crore for setting up the plant.

“The project authorities shall utilise Rs 1,525 crore earmarked for environmental pollution control measures judiciously to implement the conditions stipulated by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) as well as the state government. The funds so provided shall not be diverted for any other purpose,” a source quoted the Environment and Forests Ministry as saying, while granting clearance.

The clearance has been granted to the world’s third largest steel manufacturer for installing furnaces using FINEX technology only and on the condition that gaseous emissions from its various units should strictly conform to load/mass based standards notified by the government.

Earlier in April, the MOEF had granted its approval under Coastal Regulation Zone to the Korean steel giant’s proposal to set up a captive port at Jatadhari at a cost of Rs 17,113 crore.”

Hindustan Times and others report on this. Following are some excerpts from the Hindustan Times report.

Steel baron Lakshmi Mittal’s global giant Arcelor Mittal is planning to advance the construction at its 10 million tonnes (MT) Orissa plant and hopes to begin initial construction by mid-2008, as against the earlier date of 2009. …

The first phase of Arcelor Mittal’s plant in Orissa, with a capacity of six million tonnes, is likely to be commissioned by 2011.

The company has appointed Dastur & Co to carry out a detailed project report and environment management plan for the two sites, which are currently underway. Chief Executive Officer of Mittal Steel India Ltd, Sanak Mishra, said that major construction work in the site will be taken up in 2009 and the company has finalised the product mix of the proposed plant for both long and flat products.

Moneycontrol reports on Money Ispat’s performance and its interest in Orissa. Following are some excerpts.

Net profit of Monnet Ispat & Energy Limited jumped by 82% at Rs. 48.55 crores in its 1st quarter of 2007-2008, vis-?-vis Rs. 26.64 crores in the corresponding quarter of last financial year. The company recorded total turnover at Rs. 234.53 crores as compared to Rs. 137.12 crores achieved in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal ?an increase of 71%. …

Emphasising its shift to energy from steel making, Delhi based Monnet Ispat & Energy Ltd. (MIEL) has signed an MoU with the Government of Orissa for setting up a 1,000 MW power plant at an estimated cost of Rs.4200 Crores. The pithead power plant will come up in the Angul district of Orissa. MIEL plans to put up the 1000 MW power project in two phases of 600 MW and 400 MW. The 1st phase will be set up at an estimated cost of Rs.2850 Crores and the 2nd Phase at a cost of Rs.1350 Crores.

“In the coming years, the company will be focused more on the energy business rather than steel. Within a year, 55% of the revenues will come from the energy business and the rest from steel.,” said Mr. Sandeep Jajodia, Managing Director, Monnet Ispat & Energy Ltd.