___________

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

Genpact, the BPO arm of the US-based General Electric, had aimed to operationalize its delivery centre in the city by the fourth quarter of 2009-10. But as things stand today, the project is unlikely to take off before March 2010. …

Initially, Genpact planned to hire 500 professionals for its delivery centre in the city and later ramp up the headcount to 3,000.

Genpact had so far only put up a boundary wall for its proposed centre which would have a total built-up area of seven lakh sq ft. Another IT firm MindTree Consulting Limited which had announced a software development centre in Bhubaneswar at an investment of Rs 200 crore is non-committal on its project.

MindTree was scheduled to commence construction work for its development centre in September 2008. The software firm had sought 30 acres of land for its development centre and it had a long-term manpower requirement of 5,000 employees.

Meanwhile, the projects of other IT investors like Zensar Technologies, ICICI Group, Raheja Corporation and Apeejay Surrendra Group were now put on the back burner, given the slump in demand for IT projects, the official added.

ICICI bank, which had announced to set up its eastern regional hub in the city in May 2007, is understood to have submitted a fresh building plan to the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) after the notification of the revised building norms by the authority. With a built-up area of 1.5 million sq ft, the eastern regional hub of ICICI bank will have a pool of 15,000 employees in the long-run. The project is to be developed in phases over a period of six to seven years at an estimated investment of Rs 600 crore. Similarly, Zensar Technologies was allotted three acres of land in the Infocity area of the city by the Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco).

Following is an excerpt from the PIB release http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=51774.

The Board of Approval of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) met today consider proposals for setting up of Special Economic Zones and also to approve other miscellaneous requests pertaining to SEZs.

            Addressing the Board of Approval members, the Chairman informed that so far 577 formal approvals have been granted for setting up of SEZs out of which 325 have been notified. He further informed that over Rs.1,16,879 crore have been invested in the Special Economic Zones during this short span of time and direct employment of the order of 4,27,908 persons has been generated in the Special Economic Zones.  During the first quarter of current financial year, total export of Rs.39,411 crore approx. has been made from SEZs.

            In this meeting, 7 proposals for setting up of SEZ were considered.  The Board recommended grant of two formal approvals and one In-Principle Approvals.

·                     Formal Approvals:

Ø                   IT/ITES/BPO/EH – M/s. Brooke Bond Real Estates Private Limited SEZ at Bangalore, Karnataka.

Ø                   EH/ITES – M/s. Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd. at Shimoga, Karnataka.

·                     In-Principle Approval:

Ø                   Solar SEZ – M/s. Lanco Solar Pvt. Ltd. at village Ramdaspur, Cuttak District, Orissa.

 

…

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

… IL&FS-IDC had earlier submitted its draft report to the state government in February this year. However, the project had to be reworked by IL&FS-IDC in the wake of the Centre’s proposal to develop an airport in the same area.

Sources close to the development said, the plan to develop the airport has been okayed by the state government and the proposed airport would be a part of the IT investment region.

The airport will come up on an area of about 2,300 acres close to the site of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Orissa which is being set up over 835 acres of land at Jatni, about 20 km from the city.

… The IT investment region (ITIR) in Orissa will occupy an area of 40 sq km (around 10,000 acres) between Bhubaneswar and Khurda.

This ITIR project is expected to be fully operational by 2020.In the final project report, IL&FS-IDC had included among other things an airport, a global IT training centre, a bio-tech park and a science city spread over 350 acres.

The Infocity-II project being set up by the state government on over 600 acres of land at Janla on the outskirts of the city would also be a part of the IT investment region.

The ITIR would be developed in two phases out of which 20 per cent of the investment is committed for the first phase while the balance 80 per cent of the investment will come in the second phase.

The entire cost of the project is yet to be ascertained. While the Centre will provide external infrastructure for the project in the form of roads, the onus is on the state government to acquire land for the project.

According to the project plan of IL&FS-IDC, 40 per cent of the area of the ITIR would be earmarked for the processing units of information technology (IT) and ITes sectors (IT enabled services) as well as electronics and hardware manufacturing units.

The remaining 60 per cent of the area would be devoted to the non-processing facilities like research and development centre, technological institutes of national and international repute.

This apart there would be a central business district, an integrated township comprising social infrastructure facilities like schools, hospitals and shopping malls and external infrastructure like roads.

Economic Times has an article each on Jharkhand and Orissa’s mineral reserves and the current industrial climates and mineral policies of  both states. The two articles are:

• On Jharkhand.
• On Orissa.

Following are some additional comparison between both states:

• Orissa being a coastal state has coast related opportunities (ports) as well as problems (hurricanes, floods)
• Jharkhand has more larger metro areas than Orissa. Following are some population numbers.
  • Jharkhand’s top 4 metro areas are: Ranchi (1.07 m), Jamshedpur (1.25m), Dhanbad (1.21 m) and Bokaro (592k).
  • Asansol (West Bengal) with population of 1.3m borders Jharkhand (59km from Dhanbad) and together with Durgapur (544 K, 40 kms from Asansol) is being built as the second largest metro area of West Bengal.
  • Orissa’s top 4 metro areas are: Bhubaneswar-Cuttack metro (1.67m in Gazeteer, 1.9m in CPD estimate), Rourkela city (551K in gazeteer, 1.1 m unofficially estimated in metro area), Berhampur metro (514K in CPD estimate), and Sambalpur city (258K in Gazeteer).
• At present Orissa is a bigger knowledge and education hub.
• Orissa has more well known tourist locations.

Note: There are often many PR related activities by Vedanta and we usually don’t cover them. But this is an exceptional act of good citizenship on the part of Vedanta when the state is going through an extremely difficult time with respect to its power situation. The excerpts below are from an article by journalist Nageswar Patnaik, who is often very critical of industrial houses. Coming from him, this reinforces the genuineness and the importance of this good action by Vedanta and thus needs to be highlighted.

This should be contrasted with the Jindal group, which was reported to have violated the agreement it signed with Orissa government, and siphoned off extra power, until it was stopped by the high court.

Vedanta Group has finally come to the rescue of Orissa which is currently facing an acute power shortage due to scanty rainfall and "almost dried-up" reservoirs and breakdown of certain thermal power units in the state.

The London-based company on Thursday announced to provide 200 MW power daily to the state grid from its own power plants with immediate effect.

Vedanta has managed to get a better price for offloading power to the grid at the rate of Rs 3.60 per unit against the current Rs 3 per unit bought by the state from the CPPs.

In fact, Vedanta had been providing 115 MW of power from its Group Company BALCO in Chattisgarh to Orissa since July 4 by depriving its own smelter.

"Looking at the continuous demand in the state, Vedanta extended its supply with effect from July 9 from Jharsuguda and has managed to provide additional 100 MW of power to the state grid. The total capacity provided by Vedanta will cover up to the tune of one third of overall power shortage in the state," a source in the company said.

This was accomplished in the face of severe challenges, including shortage of coal and non availability of railway "rack," Mr Siddiqi said, assuring, to stand solidly behind the state in all its critical times.

On an average, Orissa’s daily requirement is around 2400 MW, which goes up to 2,800 to 3,000 MW during the peak hours in the evening. The state has a combined installed capacity from hydel projects to the tune of 1,900 MW. But they are generating around 1,000 MW.

Orissa is passing through power crisis forcing the authorities to restrict load restriction on industrial users by 50% among other measures to tackle the situation.

The state is facing shortage of power by 300 MW on an average and 450 to 500 MW at peak time. The delayed monsoon made things worse while the breakdown in the coal fired power plants operating in the state added to the crisis.

The VAL has set up a Greenfield alumina refinery in Orissa’s Kalahandi district with a capacity of 1 million tons per annum. It is also setting up a 0.5 MTPA aluminum smelter, 1215 MW captive power plant at Jharsuguda.

The Group Company Sterlite Energy Limited is also setting up a 2400 MW Independent Power Plants at Jharsuguda.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Indopia.

  … "The first phase with 0.8 Mtpa capacity is expected to be commissioned by June-July, 2010. Work for the stainless steel plant is going on in full swing,"JSL Vice President and Managing Director Ratan Jindal told reporters after meeting Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Though there has been some delay in the Rs 6,500 crore project …

Once the first phase is commissioned, work for the next phase would be expedited to achieve the 1.6 Mtpa capacity at the earliest.

… He said 50 per cent of the electricity generated from the captive power plant (cpp) of the company is being provided to the state government.

On the proposed 1,000 mw thermal plant to be set up in Dhenkanal, Jindal said details were being worked out for the project.

Tathya.in has a few statements on the simple style of Billionaire owner Ratan Jindal.

Ratan, in fact, known for his down to earth approach and simple life style.

He like others never moves in his personal jet and does not shows off his wealth, said an industry watcher.

He simply moves in Jetlite or Indigo with a few of his officers.

Ratan Jindal is the one of 4 sons of late O. P. Jindal. His mother is a minister in the Harayana state government and one of the brother Naveen Jindal is an MP. There are many colleges and a university with O. P. Jindal’s name. This includes the:

• O. P. Jindal Global University in Harayana with Jindal Global Law School as its first school
• O. P. Jindal Institute of Technology in Chhatisgarh under the aegis of Jindal Education and Welfare Society

The Orissa government should push Mr. Ratan Jindal for an engineering college and a medical college in Orissa.

Following is from a web site of world bank about doing business in various cities of India. This site has the main findings. The full report is at http://www.doingbusiness.org/Documents/Subnational/DB09_Subnational_Report_India.pdf.

The overall ranking of the 17 cities are:

1. Ludhiana
2. Hyderabad
3. Bhubaneswar
4. Gurgaon
5. Ahmedabad
6. New Delhi
7. Jaipur
8. Guwahati
9. Ranchi
10. Mumbai
11. Indore
12. Noida
13. Bangalore
14. Patna
15. Chennai
16. Kochi
17. Kolkata

Why is Pune not in the list?

Following is an excerpt from a report in http://www.mydigitalfc.com/companies/tatas-hire-singapore-firm-sez-273.

Tata Realty & Infrastr-ucture (TRIL), Tata Group’s real estate and infrastructure development arm, has hired Singapore-based Jurong International as the master planner for its special economic zone (SEZ) project in Gopalpur (Orissa).

“We have shortlisted Jurong for this important project,” said a Tata group official. Jurong offers design and build, consultancy, construction, and facilities management services and its India office is located in Hyderabad.
The multi-product SEZ, with all infrastructure facilities and required amenities, will cost the group nearly $ 1billion.
So far, Jurong has done master plans for 380,000 hectares, 10 million square meters of industrial land and 5.8 million square meters of residential space.

The SEZ in Gopalpur will focus on minerals, mining and associated industries. At present, Tata Steel possesses the land slotted for SEZ. In 1995, Tata Steel acquired the land for Rs 150 crore to set up a 2.5 million tonne per annum port-based steel plant in Orissa and spent. This plan had to be abandoned due to lack of amenities such as adequate water and iron ore linkages at the site. Now, Tata Steel is putting up a multi-million tonnes per annum steel plant at Kalinganagar in Orissa.

We plan to focus on industries that are downstream value-added in the metals and minerals space and allied industries such as gem and jewellery for the SEZ, which is planned to come up in 2,900 acres. The land is already in our possession and the necessary approvals are in place. So we expect that this development will not face any land acquisition related problems,” a TRIL official told Financial Chro-nicle.
“The positioning of the SEZ has been made keeping in mind the advantages of the local area and infrastructure such as a functioning port that’s capable of deep draught, an air strip and railway slidings that could be utilised by the industrial units in the zone,” added the official.

I hope this is for real and not because TATAs are due for some mining lease renewal. They have been accused of using such strategy with Orissa during mining lease renewal times.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Economic Times.

As regards Orissa projects, where 80% of the employees are from the state, we have resolved not to go for any layoff. In fact, we are appointing more and more people in our projects here,” Vedanta Group chairman Anil Agarwal told reporters here on Saturday on the sidelines of his first meeting with Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik after the latter swept the just concluded polls.

Mr Agarwal claimed that Vedanta had already invested Rs 25,000 crore of its promised Rs 50,000 crore investment in the state. “The rest will be spent in the next two years”, he assured.

Meanwhile, the VAL had secured Stage I clearance for mining of bauxite in Niyamgiri hills to feed its Lanjigarh project. …

Mr Agarwal also stated that Vedanta had got coal block for its Jharsuguda smelter project and it will soon start coal mining. To a query on the University project, Mr Agarwal said: “We are going to start our university project very soon.”

Mr Agarwal hoped that the state government would soon pass the Vedanta University Bill in the Assembly. “We have already submitted all papers to the state government required for passing of the Vedanta University Bill. I hope it will be passed in the House shortly,” he added.

He informed that Anil Agarwal Foundation – which is setting up a world class university at Puri that includes a 1000-bed hospital – will have its extended centre in Bhubaneswar. “During the meeting, the CM was contemplating if we have can have an extended centre of our hospital project in Bhubaneswar to set up a trauma centre for burn and coma patients. We have in fact agreed for it,” he said.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

The State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) headed by the chief secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy today cleared five projects worth Rs 2807.7 crore.

…out of the 12 proposals considered by SLSWCA, the proposal of Bhubneswar Power Private Ltd for setting up of a 2X67.5 Mw CPP was deferred. The energy department has been asked to consider the proposal from the policy point of view.

Two major investment proposals by Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) and Hindalco Industries were partially approved in today’s meeting due to non-availability of bauxite and pending the environmental carrying capacity study by the Orissa State Pollution Control Board.

VAL had proposed to expand the capacity of its refinery at Lanjigarh from one million tonne per annum (MTPA) to 6 MTPA and the smelter plant capacity from 0.25 MTPA to 1.6 MTPA. Besides, the capacity of the CPP was proposed to be raised from 674 Mw to 1350 Mw with a combined investment of Rs 37,440 crore.

The company had signed MoU with the Orissa government for the present capacity at an investment of Rs 12,400 crore. However, SLSWCA only recommended for a smelter capacity of 0.5 MTPA as the company had already achieved this level. It also approved the capacity expansion of the CPP to 1350 Mw as sought by the company. The additional smelting capacity will be considered only after ascertaining the availability of bauxite and receipt of the OSPCB study on environment. Similarly, Hindalco Industries Ltd (Aditya Aluminium) had proposed to expand its alumina refinery capacity to 1.5 MTPA from 1 MTPA at present.

Along with this, the company also sought expansion of its smelting capacity to 0.72 MTPA from 0.26 MTPA and increase in the CPP capacity to 1650Mw from 650 Mw.

SLSWCA has decided to recommend a marginal increase in the smelting capacity from 0.26 MTPA to 0.36 MTPA and CPP capacity from 650 Mw to 950 Mw to the HLCA.

It also put conditional approval to the proposal of the Tata Sponge Iron Ltd. to set up a 1.5 MTPA steel making capacity along with a 52 Mw CPP at an investment of Rs 3101 crore. While the existing sponge capacity of the company is 0.39 MTPA, it had sought to expand its capacity by 0.45 MTPA to 0.84 MTPA.

Similarly, the company proposed to set up one MTPA blast furnace and 1.6 MTPA pellet plant in a separate location in Keonjhar district. It will have to increase the steel making capacity first and after that the increase in the sponge making capacity will be allowed.

The other projects which were approved include 4 MTPA iron ore beneficiation plant at an investment of Rs 360.85 crore to be set up by Kolkata based Rashmi Metaliks at Nayagarh in Keonjhar district.

Similarly, the Rs 624.7 crore investment proposal of Rungta mines, Shyam Steel Industries proposal for setting up 2 MTPA iron ore pelletisation plant were cleared by the SLSWCA. Besides, the Toshali Cement’s proposal to expand its capacity to 2100 tonne per day from 600 tonne per day along with 3.96 lakh tonne per annum grinding unit at Choudwar was also approved.

The proposal of Orissa Thermal Power Corporation, a joint venture between Orissa Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC) and Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) to set up 2000 MW power plant at Rengali at an investment of Rs 8250 crore also received the nod of the committee.

Jindal India Thermal Power’s proposal to increase the capacity from 1200 Mw to 1800 mw and Lanco Bhawan Power’s proposal to increase its capacity to 2640 Mw from 1230 Mw were approved for recommendation to the HLCA on the basis of strong recommendation of the energy department.

In another significant decision, SLSWCA decided not to allow any more cement plant in the state except Malkangiri district as the state does not have sufficient amount of limestone.

Following is from a report in Hindu.

Indian Oil Corporation has tied up finances for its Rs 29,777 crore Paradip refinery project in Orissa that would be commissioned by March 2012.

"We have received commitments from a consortia of banks," IOC Chairman Sarthak Behuria said.

SBI Caps, which was mandated to arrange Rs 14,700 crore debt for the project, has managed Rs 14,900 crore from 21 banks. State Bank of India (SBI) will be the largest lender with Rs 4,200 crore exposure.

IOC was likely to sign loan agreements with the consortia of banks on May 14.

"We will draw (from these loans) as and when we need them," he said but did not give details.

IOC is targeting commissioning of the refinery in first quarter of 2012. The board had recently split the refinery cum petrochemical complex into two, deciding to do the refinery first and the chemical unit will follow later.

Paradip refinery is being configured to process the toughest, heaviest and the most dirtiest crudes which are cheaper than the cleaner and easier varieties. The refinery will have a Nelson Complexity Index of 15.

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

…  According to government data, steel and electrical equipment makers lead the pack of corporates in drawing up investments in new capacities and expansion projects. The department of industrial policy and promotion has received investment proposals totalling around Rs 99,958 crore in January. This marks a 65% increase over proposals filed in December.

The government reckons that if the projects fructify, they could create about 65,000 new jobs. Among the January proposals, Rs 15,654 crore worth plans are for West Bengal, followed by Rs 15,088 crore for Chhattisgarh and Rs 13,381 crore for Orissa. Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat are the other states where investments have been planned.

With focus on infrastructure development, especially in the power sector, investment of Rs 39,157 crore has been announced for electrical equipment and Rs 38,798 crore in metallurgical industries.

Among the industries, electrical equipment, metallurgical industries, cement and gypsum products are the areas attracting the maximum investment plans.

Though these are mere investment plans, the figures are yet another pointer that the worst may be over and the economy looks set for a rebound. This may sound contra-intuitive after dire predictions of a long and deep slowdown, but economists and investment bankers indeed see an uptick as early as September, or latest by December.

The Anti-POSCO candidates for the gram panchayat elections have won. The details are below. I hope POSCO removes Dhinikia from its plan and both anti and pro POSCO people shun violence and illegal activities sich as blocking roads. Let POSCO be established in those areas where people want it and stay away from places where they are not wanted. Following is an excerpt from a report in orissadiary about the gram panchayat election results.

Posco Pratirodha Sangram Samiti … PPSS fielded its sarpanch candidate Mr Sisir Mohapatra and PS member candidate Mr Prakash Jena in this panchyat election. Mr Mohapatra is working as secretary of PPSS while Mr Jena has been languishing in Kujang jail since seven months after his arrest on Posco violence issue. PPSS candidate Mr Mohapatra has defeated his rival candidate Mrs Salila Nayak, wife of former sarpanch late Basant Nayak by margin 73 votes .Mr Mohapatra has got 2005 votes while Nayak has got 1932 votes.

Similarly, PS member candidate Mr Jena has also defeated his rivalry candidate Mr Nrusingh Das by 282 votes in which Jena has got 1672 votes while Mr Das has got 1390 votes. Sarpanch candidate Mr Nayak and PS member Mr Das who were defeated from this seat was backed by Posco supporters.

On the other hand, Zilla Parishad candidate Mr Saubhagaya Behera who was contesting as independent candidate has defeated his rival congress candidate Mr Rupakar Sethy by 995 votes. Mr Behera has got 6742 votes while Mr Sethi has got 5767 votes.

Following is from a report in Business Standard.

The joint venture (JV) Company formed between the state owned Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) and Sterlite Industries India Ltd (SIIL) for mining of bauxite in the Niyamagiri hills in Kalahandi district will be incorporated as a Private Limited Company soon.

.. “The draft memorandum of association (MoA) and Articles of Association (AoA) of the new company has been submitted to OMC for approval. The incorporation of the JV company will be completed shortly after the approval”, P K Panda, vice-president (mines), Vedanta Aluminium Ltd.(VAL) told Business Standard.

The process of incorporation of the Joint Venture company named as “South-West Orissa Bauxite Mining Private Ltd.” has been set in motion after the signing of the modified JV agreement between SIIL and OMC in February this year, paving the way for start of bauxite mining in Niyamgiri hills near Lanjigarh.

Meanwhile, the special purpose vehicle (SPV) namely ‘Lanjigarh Scheduled Area Foundation’ has already been formed and SIIL has deposited Rs 20 crore up to 2008-09 with the SPV for overseeing the all-round development in the Lanjigarh area.

Supreme Court in its judgement on 8 August 2008 cleared mining of bauxite in the Niyamgiri hills located in the Kalahandi district by SIIL following affidavits filed by SIIL, OMC and Orissa government accepting the rehabilitation package suggested by it on 23 November 2007.

While the company has deposited Rs 12 crore for tribal development, another Rs 10 crore is proposed to be deposited with the SPV during 2009-10. As part of its plan for the overall development of the area, the company also intends to provide connectivity to all the villages of Dongria Kandh, which are remotely located.

This is in line with the 5-year development plan drawn up for these villages by the Dongria Kandh Development Authority (DKDA).

Regarding the JV agreement of Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL) with OMC for getting the raw material linkage, the apex court had stated that since Vedanta Resources Plc is not an indian company, it will not have any objection if the its indian subsidiary (SIIL) is made the JV partner of OMC.All provisions of the supreme court judgement were incorporated in the modified JV agreement signed by OMC and SIIL

It may be noted, VAL, a Sterlite group company, signed the JV agreement with the OMC on 5 October 2004, for developing bauxite mines at the Niyamgiri hill near Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district and the Khambasi hill in the adjoining Rayagada district. The bauxite was to be used for use in its one million tonne alumina refinery at Lanjigarh.

Following is from Sambada. It reports that Jindal Steel of Kalinganagar is trying to give its extra power to its plant in Harayana against the agreement that the state of Orissa has the first rights to get that extra power. The Orissa high court was approached on this and it has put a stay order on this. Industrialists should realize that such attempt to steal from a state, that too a poor state like Orissa, is what gives the whole conecpt of industrailization a bad name.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

The government has awarded the country’s first two coal-to-liquid-petroleum projects to the Tatas and Jindal Steel and Power.

Both the projects, estimated to cost $6-8 billion each, will come up in Orissa.

The Union coal ministry has allotted the Ramchandi block to Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) and the north Arkhapal block to Strategic Energy Technology Systems Ltd, a 50:50 joint venture between Tata Sons and Sasol of South Africa.

…Jindal Steel will use the technology of Germany’s Lurgi, while the Tatas will depend on Sasol’s expertise.

In each project, annual production is estimated at four million tonnes based on the daily production of 80,000 barrels.

The process involves the gassification of coal to produce synthetic gas, which is then converted to crude through different technologies.

Given the quality of Indian coal, crude from this process will cost $55-60 a barrel, about 50 per cent more than the current price of $40 a barrel.

However, the project will take at least six years to take off, and crude prices are likely to rule higher than the current levels.

“When a project of this magnitude is being conceived for 25-30 years, one does not only look at current economics,” a JSPL official said.

The process also involves the washing of coal, and the waste thus produced will be used to produce power. JSPL said the project would help it generate 1,350MW of power.

The crude oil produced from coal is expected to be low on sulphur. The bulk of the fuel will be diesel, which is consumed 5 times more in India than petrol.

JSPL’s proposed unit will be located at Kishore Nagar in Angul district of Orissa. The site has been selected keeping in mind the availability of water and rail and road connectivity.

…  JSPL is also building a 6mt steel plant at Angul. Tata Steel, too, plans to set up a unit in Orissa. JSPL said it had already placed the order for two coal gassifier units for the upcoming steel plants at Angul and in Chattisgarh.

Following is from a report in Oil and Gas journal.

Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. has awarded a contract to Foster Wheeler Energy Ltd. and Foster Wheeler (GB) Ltd. for a grassroots refinery to be built in Paradip, Orissa state, India.

Foster Wheeler will manage the project for the major part of the development of the new 15 million tonne/year refinery and will also execute the engineering, procurement, and construction management for 15 of the key refinery process units, plus offsites, utilities, and infrastructure.

Foster Wheeler’s scope includes the crude distillation units, reforming, alkylation and butane isomerization units, plus significant offsites, utilities, and infrastructure. Commissioning of the project is expected during 2011-12.

Following is from a report in Expressbuzz.

The Mission Biofuels India Pvt Limited has submitted a proposal to the State Government to set up a biodiesel refinery in Orissa.

The Mumbai-based company has sought 35 hectares of land to set up the refinery at an estimated cost of Rs 350 crore. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company Asish Swaroop today met Chief Secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy at the Secretariat to discuss the proposal.

The company gave a power point presentation on the project.

The project is expected to give returns from the fourth year. It is estimated that 3 kg of jatropha yields one litre of bio-diesel, the production cost of which comes to around Rs 22. The company has invested Rs 40 crore for taking up jatropha cultivation in 12 districts of the State. The cultivation will be taken up on the land of BPL families with the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) funds.

Around five lakh acres will be covered by 2011 for which a 200-member team of the company is working in Orissa to promote jatropha cultivation.

Following is  from a report in livemint.

Around 300 people would get directly absorbed in the proposed 2,000 mw thermal power plant in Orissa’s Angul district that is likely to be completed by 2014 at an investment of Rs8,000 crore, an official said Friday.

The project would be developed by the newly-formed Orissa Thermal Power Corp. Ltd (OTPCL), a joint venture of the state-owned Orissa Mining Corp. (OMC) and Orissa Hydro Power Corp. (OHPC), an official said Friday.

“Both OMC and OHPC will have equal share in equity for the Rs8,000 crore project,” said state energy minister S.N. Patro. Seventy percent of the funds would be met through loans, he said.

Both OMC and OHPC will provide Rs1,200 crore each to start the project making it the second state-owned thermal power unit.

The first thermal power plant at Ib valley was being operated in a joint venture between the Orissa Power Generation Corp. (OPGC) and the US-based Aes Powers.

Patro said the government had already identified land and “the water requirement of the proposed thermal power plant will be met by the reservoir at Rengali”, the exact location where the plant would come up in Angul.

The coal blocks posessed by OMC and OHPC would be utilised in the thermal power project, the minister added.

Following is excerpted from a report in Indopia.

The Orissa government today formally approved investment of about Rs 35,000 crore in the power and steel sectors of the state. The high-level clearance authority (HLCA) chaired by Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik gave green signals for the investment in five power projects and one steel unit.

… The HLCA approved investment in five proposals in the power sector and one steel project, Garg said adding that altogether the projects would provide direct employment to over 6,000 people.

The projects, which got HLCA nod were – Visaka Thermal Power Limited (1100 MW), Sahara India Private Limited (1,320 MW), L&T (1,680 MW), JSPL (1,320 MW) and Ind-Bharat Limited (700 MW).

The HLCA approved JSPL&aposs another proposal of further investment in its proposed 6mtpa steel mill at Bainda.

JSPL, which had earlier proposed to invest Rs 13,135 crore in its steel project could now invest Rs 22,420 crore.

Following is from a report in Business Standard.

The State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) headed by Orissa chief secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy today approved 2 thermal power projects with combined investment of Rs 16,140 crore.

This includes 1680 Mw thermal power project proposed by L &T with an investment of Rs 10,200 crore near Dhamra in Bhadrakh district and 1000Mw thermal power plant proposed by Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) at Bainda in the Dhenkanal district with an investment of Rs 5940 crore.

SLSWCA, which considered 10 proposals in the power and steel sector today approved 2 proposals, rejected two proposals while deferring its decision on the remaining 6 proposals.

The two proposals which were rejected are Surya Chakra Power Company proposing to set up a thermal power plant at Balasore and Adhunik power proposing a thermal power plant at Banto in Bhadrakh district.

Talking to the media after the meeting, A K Meena, managing director, Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation Ltd.(Ipicol) said, due to the non availability of water in different locations some proposals have either been rejected or deferred.

He said, SLSWCA approved the proposal of the L&T Ltd. subject to the condition that the company will use sea water for its plant. Besides, it will have to withdraw the case filed against Orissa government regarding the iron ore lease. It has been suggested that the company will be allowed to sign the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state government only after it meets the above two conditions. Similarly, SLSWCA recommended the proposal of the JSPL for setting up a thermal power plant subject to the participation of the company in the creation of water storage capacity in river Mahanadi. The proposals which were deferred are those of Tuff Energy, Tata Sponge Iron Ltd., JR Power Gen Ltd., Poysa Power Project Ltd., Jindal India Thermal Power (capacity expansion) and Lanco group (capacity expansion).