___________

Following is from Dharitri.

Following is from Dharitri.

As S. Pani points out Indigo is going to have the following new flights through Bhubaneswar:

Starting 16th Feb:
6E 293 Kolkata-Bhubaneswar-Mumbai-Coimbatore
6E 294 Coimbatore-Mumbai-Bhubaneswar-Kolkata

Starting 7th March
6E 511 Chennai-Vizag-Bhubaneswar-Kolkata
6E 512 Kolkata-Bhubaneswar-Vizag-Chennai

With these and other recent changes following is a glimpse of the flight connectivity between Bhubaneswar and other cities. We only show direct flights or flights with one stop (but no plane changes).

Kolkata:

Delhi: (Note – The Jetlite flight does not show up in the left.)Mumbai: (The Jetlite and Jet Konect flights below refer to the same flight.)

Bangalore: (The Jetlite and Jet Konect flights below refer to the same flight.)
Hyderabad: (For some reason the above Jet Konnect/Jet Lite flight to  Hyderabad does not show up below.)Chennai: (The Air India flight below is five days a week.)Visakhapatnam:      Port Blair: Coimbatore:

The new flights that Indigo introduced has the hopping schedule that South West airlines in USA has. Such a hopping schedule allows for additional 1 or 2 stop connections without plane changes. I hope in the future similar connectivity is added to places like Cochin, Pune, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Indore, Guwahati, Lucknow/Kanpur etc.

I also noticed that on some days the price to fly between Bhubaneswar and Mumbai is more than flying from Bhubaneswar to Coimbatore via Mumbai on the same flight.

Thanks very much Bikash Dash for the pointer to http://wiki.iricen.gov.in/doku/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=9209%3Aabkhare.pdf. The solution presented there to expand the current Bhubaneswar station to 10 platforms is very good. Since the expansion of existing Bhubaneswar station is deemed economically feasible, they should just go ahead with that immediately (asap) and at the same time start acquiring land in the New Barang location so that a large station can come up there in 10-15 years when that will be needed.

Following are some pictures from the above mentioned slide sets.

The main hurdle with respect to the above plan is the private land that is marked as "to be acquired". That part is shown in red in the map below.

I hope that hurdle is overcome and the expansion gets going asap. If there is trouble then a simple alternative is to move the commercial part to the area marked in green (in the map below) and make the parking area marked in orange a multi-level one with the underground part going under the Janpath to the commercial complex marked in green.

Since the land marked in green is government land this would not cause a lot of trouble and as mentioned before it will connect the station complex with the IG park, Secretariate, Assembly, and Rabindra mandap. In the future there may be a Las Vegas style monorail connecting all these parts. (Note that this plan will not affect the existing coaching yard much. That money can be used in making the underground path connecting the green part and the orange part.)

But in 10-15 years the ten platforms will not be enough; especially when there will be many suburban routes with more frequent trains. Examples of such lines:

• Bhubaneswar-Puri-Konark (Puri-Konark extension is expected)
• Bhubaneswar-Berhampur-Gopalpur (Berhampur-Gopalpur extension is expected; post connectivity)
• Bhubaneswar-Khurda Rd-Nayagarh (part of Khurda-Balangir line)
• Bhubaneswar-Talcher
• Bhubaneswar-Rajathgarh-Tangi
• Bhubaneswar-Bhadrak
• Bhubaneswar-Paradeep
• Bhubaneswar-Barang-Astaranga (new port connectivity)
• Bhubaneswar-Puri-Baliharchandi (new port connectivity)
• Bhubaneswar-Jakhapura-Sukinda

So the alternative plan of a major station near Barang should also proceed but with a slower speed. Especially the land should be acquired asap before the prices become very high.

Update: Thanks very much Bikash Dash for the pointer to http://wiki.iricen.gov.in/doku/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=9209%3Aabkhare.pdf. The solution presented there is good enough. My only comment would be that since the expansion of existing Bhubaneswar station is economically feasible, they should just go ahead with that immediately (asap) and at the same time start acquiring land in the New Barang location so that a large station can come up there in 10-15 years when that will be needed.

The Bhubaneswar railway station currently has only FOUR platforms. That is too little for the volume of trains and passengers it caters to and will cater to in the future. Besides being on the main Howrah-Chennai line and the ECOR headquarter, with the Bhubaneswar metro area growing and many new lines in the anvil (Khurda-Balangir, possible new line to Astarang to serve the proposed port there, Khurda Rd To Rajahthagarh completing a circuit)  there will soon  be need for many local train circuits with more frequent trains.

All this means that even if a new station near Barang (15-16 kms from Bhubaneswar) is constructed with enough platforms, because of the central location of the Bhubaneswar station, the later needs to be expanded with additional platforms.

But there is no horizontal available land in parallel to the exisiting platforms.

I envision two possible solutions:

(i) Going vertical and creating another layer of platforms either under or above the existing platforms. But that would add may be another 4 platforms.

(ii) Another possibility is to go under and create a terminus under the area marked in blue in the pictures below. All those land is owned by the Odisha government. So land acquisition is not a problem.

As can be seen from the pictures above one can add 8+ more platforms perpendicular to the existing 4 platforms. All this can be done in a PPP mode with making good use of shopping, pedestrian plaza and surface transport center all in the ground level and higher and stretching all the way up to the Indira Gandhi park and the Assembly Hall, Secretariat, Rabindra Mandap etc.

The new platforms could mostly be used for trains origniating and terminating at Bhubaneswar; thus  not hampering the stopping times of thorough trains which would  need an engine direction change if they go to the new platforms.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer. 

With top software companies chalking out their strategies for growth, the top administrators in the Information Technology (IT) sector in Odisha say that by 2013 the state will have more than 10,000 seats for software professionals.

TCS, Infosys, Wipro and above all MindTree have started their plans for expansion in Odisha in a big way, said an official in the Department of IT(DoIT).

MindTree, a global IT and Product engineering services company, is starting work on its 20-acre campus from Thursday, said sources.Though MindTree wanted to open its campus way back in 2004, bureaucratic wrangles forced the IT major to wind up its plan. However, with the intervention of the top officials in the DoIT, it has once again taking up the job to set up 2,000-seater campus by 2013, which will ultimately a 10,000-seater campus in future.DoIT Secretary and IDCO CMD Pradeep Jena played a crucial role in roping in the Global IT company to Odisha by providing 20-acres of land in Infocity I.

… Wipro has also started construction of its campus in Infocity I, said an offcial.

This will be a 3,000-seater campus with the latest facilities for software development.Similarly, Infosys has decided to be co-developer of a 50-acre zone in Info Valley SEZ coming up near Khurda.

DoIT sources said 5,000 seats would be developed in next two years.TCS has also started adding its second campus with 3,500 seats in Infocity I.All these companies would be adding 10,000 seats by 2013 …

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

Mid-sized IT solution provider MindTree Ltd has plans to complete its Orissa project by 2017 and the first phase by June 2013 …

… MindTree will invest Rs 250 crore in a span of five years to build the facility, which can employ 5,000 persons and can train 1,000 freshers, he informed while saying that the entire campus will have the touch of Puri temple along with modern architecture.

In its Bhubaneswar campus, the company will provide all its services including specialised Product Engineering Services that accounts for a third of its revenue. After its completion, it will also look for universities which can make changes in their curriculum to suit the business requirement, he said.

Following is a list with some links. Please let me know if I am missing something.

1. Gotipua Dance Festival, (15th-17th November 2011).
2. Puri Beach Festival (23rd – 29th November 2011).
3. Konark Festival (1st – 5th December 2011).
4. International Sand art Festival (1st-5th December 2011).
5. Dhauli Kalinga Mahotsav (10th – 14th December 2011).
   1. Dhauli Mahotsav (10th-12th December 2011)
   2. Kalinga Mahotsav (13th-14th December 2011)
6. Shreekhetra Utsav, Puri  (14th-25th December 2011) ???
7. Toshali National Crafts Mela (15th – 27th December 2011).
8. Odissi International (18th-22nd December 2011).
9. Eastern Jatra Festival (24th – 30th December).
10. International Odissi Dance Festival (23rd-30th December 2011).
11. Odissi Music Festival (8th – 10th January 2012).
12. Ekamra – the Temple City Festival (10th-20th January 2012)
    1. Mukteswar Dance Festival (14th – 16th January 2012).
    2. Rajarani Music Festival (18th – 20th January 2012).
13. Adivasi Mela (26th January – 5th February 2012).
14. Kharavela Mahotsava (30th January – 5th February 2012).
15. Konark dance and music festival (19-23rd February 2012).
16. BYOF (Bring Your Own Film) -21st -25th February 2012.
17. Drama Season in Bhubaneswar: February – April.
18. Samrachana: Choreography Festival (1st March to 5th March 2012).

This year some of the festivals are new. They are: Gotipua festival, Sand art festival and the Odissi music festival. All of them are great additions. 

In the future years perhaps additional festivals that would include Pala/Daskathia, Sambalpuri music, Sambalpuri dance, Chhau dance, Ghumura etc. can be included. Chhau and Ghumura may be part of the adivasi mela, but giving them a solo dance or music platform (not part of a mela) would be great.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

Though the AAI had asked the State Government to make available a total of 815 acres of land for the airport project, the latter had requested the AAI to scale down the land requirement since maximum 734 acres are available in the area.

Now, the State Government has assured the AAI to provide additional land of around 40 acres for upgradation of the airstrip. Patnaik said the 40 acres of land would help construct a 6,000-feet-long runway. The district Collector has been told to identify suitable land and clear the encroachment, if any, before handing over the land to the AAI.

Although the above is a good step, considering the important of this airport towards well-rounded development of Odisha the government is too slow. It needs to move faster.

(Thanks to Devasis Sarangi for the pointer to this in facebook.)

Following is from a report in Business Standard.

Number one in growth over last year’s net direct tax collection during April 1-December 1 is Bhubaneswar, with a 52.6 per cent increase at Rs 4,187 crore (Rs 2,744 crore in last year’s corresponding period). Of the collection this year, Rs 2,959 crore has come from corporate tax and Rs 1,226 crore from personal income tax.

A senior department official said the better growth in direct tax realisation in smaller regions clearly indicated an increase in business activities in these. And, that this had come despite overall sluggish performance.

I am tempted to draw more conclusions but am not sure of jurisdictions of each of the locations in the left. For example, for the number corresponding to Bhubaneswar, is the data just about collection from Bhubaneswar city (as defined by what?) or about the collection from Bhubaneswar tax circle (what are the areas it covers?). Although not knowing this makes it difficult to draw more conclusions, one thing is for sure; Bhubaneswar tops in the growth of direct tax collections.

Following is a list of museums and ASI ticketed monuments in and around Bhubaneswar:

1. Odisha State Museum, Bhubaneswar. (branch museums at: Puri, Dhenkanal, Salipur, Khiching, Baripada, Balasore, Nuapara, Bhawanipatna, Balangir, Jeypore, Baragarh and Koraput)
2. Museum of Tribal Arts and Artifacts, Bhubaneswar.
3. Regional Museum of Natural History (RMNH), Bhubaneswar.
4. Regional Science Center, Bhubaneswar
5. Handloom and Handicrafts museum, Bhubaneswar (being set up)
6. ASI Museum in Konark.
7. ASI Museum in Ratnagiri.
8. ASI Museum in Lalitgiri (being constructed)
9. ASI Ticketed Monuments (Konark, Udaygiri and Khandagiri caves, Rajarani temple, Lalitgiri, Ratnagiri)
10. Srikhetra Culture Museum, Puri (being constructed)
11. Dhenkanal Science Center. (Kapilas Science Park.)

Following is a list of live museums in and around Bhubaneswar:

1. Nandan Kanan, Barang
2. State Botanical Garden, Barang
3. Regional Plant Resource Center (Ekamra Kanan), Bhubaneswar (with a cactus garden, arboretum, orchidarium, bamboosetum, wild fruit garden and palmetum)
4. Medicinal plant garden, Patrapada, Bhubaneswar
5. Jayadev Vatika, Kenduvila (30 kms from Bhubaneswar)
6. Jayadev batika at Khandagiri.
7. Ekamra Vana (Medicinal plant garden), around Bindu sagar lake, Bhubaenswar
8. Various parks in Bhubaneswar.
9. Aquarium at Nandan Kanan.
10. Aquarium at CIFA, Bhubaneswar
11. Aquarium, Puri (planned)

Others:

1. Sudarshan Sand art institute, Puri.
2. Raghurajpur artisan village.

Following is from a report in Indian Express.

The Tribal Museum here is up for a makeover. Located on the premises of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Research and Training Institute (SCSTRTI), the archives displays objects from almost every tribe. The institute is the only government-run tribal museum in the State and  attracts hundreds of visitors from abroad each year. A few years back, it was identified as the best among the 21 tribal museums in India by Unesco.

 Apart from the existing five galleries in the Museum that houses ornaments, paintings, photographs, hunting tools, agriculture implements, musical instruments and Dokra items,  the authorities are setting up another Primitive Tribal Group (PTG) gallery on the institute’s 18 acre campus. Construction of this gallery is underway and after completion, it would adorn artefacts related to 13 PTGs in the State.  Plans have also been drawn up to rope in tribal artisans and use the institute premises as a live museum-cum-platform where tribal artisans would get the chance to display and sell their products. This apart, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has sanctioned ` 40 lakh for beautification of the Museum this year that would entail landscaping, construction of pathways and plantation of trees like Sal, Mohul, Bamboo … "… The land behind the five hutments within the Museum will be used for setting up small forests that are typical to a tribal habitation,” said Museum in-charge Trilochan Sahoo, adding stone statues of tribal deities will also be installed. Besides, touchscreen kiosks will be set up in each of the existing five galleries where short films on tribal livelihood will be screened for interested tourists. The Tribal Museum has around 2,247 tribal artefacts, 34 items of textiles of 10 tribes and 927 ornaments of 25 tribes. The five huts within the premises are of Santal, Juang, Gadaba, Saora and Kondh tribes.

Tribal Dance Festival

The three-day Tribal Dance Festival will  be organised this year by the SC & ST Development Department from December 12. … every day during the festival, five tribal dances will be showcased and this time, tribals from Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh have been invited to perform besides the those from the State.

Please help me fill the missing data in the table below. (The important data we need is the route kms for the red states in Column 2 as those states do not have a division HQ of that zone.)

Why it is important that SER have a division in Odisha?

• As we will show below SER, without a proper representation in Odisha, has badly messed up in Odisha.
• SER has neglected stations in Odisha. In particular, it has neglected Rourkela, the second largest metropolitan area of Odisha in many ways. For example, Rourkela is not in the list of world-class stations.

How has SER messed up in Odisha?

• The Rupsa-Bangiriposi conversion to broad gauge has been messed up badly. See page 8-9 of 2006-may-CAG report.



• Alignment of Jaleswar – Digha line.
• The dangling lines



• etc.

Having made the point that SER needs to have a division HQ in Odisha, the best location for such a division HQ would be Rourkela. It would of course need a reorganization of the current division break-up. Below we will give some suggestions on a possible reorganization.

Following is an excerpt from a report in ibnlive.com.

The state government has started work on development of a railway corridor through Choudwar to Rourkela to allow ease of inward and outward transportation of goods from the industrial hubs and mining belts along the region.

Land acquisition for the project, the first of its kind initiative by a state government, has already been initiated by the Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco). The project would go on ground after the land acquisition and is targeted to be completed by 2015, said Idco CMD Priyabrata Patnaik on Friday.

The corridor involves development of extensive rail and road connectivity, along with provisioning of water supply and other infrastructural facilities. The corridor would encompass two track railway lines and six-lane road passing through the industrial hubs and the coal mining belts. New industrial areas and downstream units would be developed along the corridor.

Common infrastructure facilities under the corridor would solve the problems of inward and outward transportation of goods and minerals. The stretch would pass through the heart of coal mining operations in the state, which harbours about 65 billion tonne of reserves. The coal reserves in the Talcher belt only is around 43 billion tonne.

The corridor would cover 17 large and mega-industries, along with 57 other units, through the stretch from Choudwar to Rourkela. Traffic projection on the route is given out as 8.7 million tonne.

The route would have 163 km of railway track length and 465 km on road. As many as 308 minor bridges and 77 major bridges would have to be constructed on it, said Patnaik.

Note 1: The 163 km of railway track probably refers to the Talcher-Bimlagarh segment.

Note 2: Although the above report only mentions the Choudwar-Rourkela part, in earlier documents there is mention of Paradeep-Choudwar-Rourkela industrial corridor. See for example this 2009 Business Standard report. Following are some excerpts from that.

The Orissa government plans to develop an industrial corridor running from Paradeep to Rourkela through industrial hubs like Choudwar, Talcher and Sambalpur.

Though the initial proposal was to have an industrial corridor originating from Choudwar to Rourkela, the proposal was modified to extend the corridor till Paradeep to allow inward and outward transport of goods through the Paradeep port, sources said.

… The proposed industrial corridor will be in line with the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and is designed to pass through national highway no.42 and national highway no 5 (A).

Under the project, both road and rail corridor will be developed, which will be the backbone of the proposed project. The industrial estates and down stream units would be developed over 25 km area on both sides of the corridor.

IL&FS has been appointed as the consultant for the project and it has already submitted the pre-feasibility study report to the industry department on the project. However, the detail cost of the project is yet to be worked out yet, sources added.

…

The latest initiative of the state government follows a similar initiative to develop a common ‘rail-road-water pipeline and infrastructure corridor’ in Meramundali-Angul-Talcher-Chhendipada belt, to facilitate movement of coal in the Talcher coalfield area.

The project is estimated to cost about Rs 5000 crore including Rs 2000 crore for 2-line rail corridor and Rs 1100 crore for 4 lane road alongside it. The land width of the proposed corridor will be 300 metre which includes 60 metre for road and 20 metre for water pipeline.

The total length of the corridor is 137 kilometre which includes length of 43 number of major bridges to be constructed on this stretch. RITES Ltd has already submitted a pre-feasibility report to the state owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa Ltd. (Idco) on the project.

The project is designed to have multi-point centralised loading stations conceived along the corridor rather than individual bulb connections with a view to avoid interference or wastage of coal bearing areas. Road and water pipe alignment will run parallel to rail alignment, sources said.

It will be connected to rail line at three locations- Jharpada, Angul and Budhapanka. The common corridor will have multiple entry and exit points and no surface crossing. Besides, flyovers are proposed to avoid cross movements at junction stations.

This ‘rail-road-water pipeline and infrastructure corridor’ in Meramundali-Angul-Talcher-Chhendipada belt is projected to handle 113 million tonne coal by 2014-15. It includes 55 million tonne coal movement required by the power companies, 40.76 million tonne by steel companies and 17.22 million tonne by other industries.

The above is a good idea.

• A plan over a larger area will avoid congestion and slums that are typical of densly packed areas.
• Another big benefit will be that the term "Capital Area" will make it easier for institutions, companies and other entities to come to the gretaer area rather than coming to "Bhubaneswar". For example, many institutions that are looking for land in Bhubaneswar are hesitant to locate in Kendrapada or Jagatsinghpur; even though the political leadership is very welcoming.  But once the term "Capital Area" encompasses Kendrapada and Jagatsinghpur, these institutions will be less hesitant to come there.

So while the current Bhubaneswar and Cuttack planned areas will sever as the core urban area, the larger Capital Area development region will morph to a sub-urban area which down the road will touch the metropolitan areas around Angul in the west and Berhampur in the south.

We wrote about this in http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/3637.

A similar term needs to be coined for the greater Sambalpur-Jharsuguda-Rourkela area. See http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/3660 , http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/3672 and http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/3668.

Perhaps it can be called the "Western Odisha Development Region".

Following is from a report by Bibhuti Barik in Telegraph.

The state government is planning to build a new road from Lingaraj Temple to Kotiteertheswar Temple at a cost of around Rs 2 crore, to ease traffic pressure in the area. The 410-metre two-lane road will come with a three-acre parking area.

The project, which is to be taken up jointly by the tourism department and the roads and building division of the public works department (PWD), will also help provide a clearer view of the 11th century Lingaraj temple as shops and roadside vendors in front of the shrine will be relocated along the new road.

… the dilapidated Lingaraj Market Complex … will be demolished to clear the area for the laying of the road which will run along the Devi Padahara pond, behind Ananta Vasudev Temple and the farm lands on the side of natural drainage channel No. 7 near Kotiteertheswar Lane. The private land near the temple, which is owned by businessmen and the Lingaraj Temple Trust, will also be acquired to speed up the road project.

… “The state tourism department has already given Rs 30 lakh to the PWD and the rest — Rs 1.69 crore — will be provided by them from their plan budget. All the displaced traders and vendors will be rehabilitated.”

… the two-lane road would have facilities such as footpath and accompanying drains. However, the parking lot would be built by the tourism department, as it is not included in the road project.

The road would later be extended up to Taleswar Mahadev to improve the communication between Kedar Gouri and Lingaraj Temple.

Tourism department sources added that Old Town would soon have a mega tourist circuit, for which the Centre has sanctioned Rs 8.14 crore. The proposed circuit envisages, among others things, renovation of two major roads, construction of a “parikrama” around Lingaraj Temple, soft lighting for eight protected monuments and two tourism interpretation centres.

While the tourism department is trying to revive Ekamreswar, the miniature temple of Lord Lingaraj near Lingaraj police station, a dedicated road corridor will be constructed to link Puri, Old Town and Khandagiri via Dhauli. An amphitheatre will also be built opposite Madhusudan Park at Pokhariput with a capacity to accommodate 3,000 people.

Update:

Following is from a report in Business Standard.

Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) has committed an investment of Rs 500 crore for a downstream industrial park in Orissa.

This is the latest in a string of investment plans announced by the company in the state which includes a greenfield steel plant, a coal to liquid project and a proposed deep sea port.

The steel company on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state government for setting up the park at Parang in Angul district. The downstream industrial park is expected to attract investments of Rs 5,000 crore besides generating employment opportunities for 32,000 people, both direct and indirect.

The park is also set to generate tax revenue worth Rs 700 crore per annum for the state government.

The pact was signed between T Ramachandru, principal secretary (industries), Orissa government and Anand Goel, joint managing director of JSPL.

The park, to come up over 1,400 acres of land, is expected to be operational by the end of 2014. It will focus on medium and small scale downstream units that would both add value and result in increased industrial activity.

The industries targeted for the park include steel rolling and other mills for downstream steel products, forging units, beam welding plants, ferro alloy units, pipe manufacturing units, galvanizing and colour coating units, foundries as well as food processing and coal storage units.

Update: The updated train timings of this extended train is as follows. It is slower than expected and takes 4 hours between Rourkela and Hatia. But those extra stops, many in Jharkhand, makes it easy for the Jharkhand people to accept this extension. That may be the reason it has these many stops in between.

(Thanks to rourkelacity.com for the pointer to this topic.)

Following is from a report in Telegraph.

… the Jammu Tawi-Hatia Express will be extended till Rourkela from November 12. Hitherto, Rourkela could enjoy the services of only Hatia-Puri Tapaswini Express, Hatia-Bhubaneswar Garib Rath Express and Hatia-Jharsuguda Passenger.

The above report is from the Jharkhand edition of Telegraph. It is nice to hear that they are taking this news positively, unlike many places which complain when a train originating/terminating from their city is extended.

Although this is a slow train with many stops, this will be the first direct connection between a city in Odisha and Jammu Tawi. The major en-route stops of this train are: Muri, Allahabad, Kanpur, Tundla, Aligarh, Delhi, Sonipat, Panipat, Kurukshetra, Ambala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Pathankot Jn. From Ranchi it currently takes 30:25 hrs to Delhi. It takes about 2:30-3 hrs from Rourkela to Ranchi. So from Rourkela it will take about 33 hrs to Delhi. In comparison Utkal Express plus the 08177 Tata-JSG special takes 26:25 + 2:20 = 28:45hrs. So although it is not that good an alternative to travel to Delhi, it provides new connectivity between Rourkela to many other cities such as: Allahabad, Kanpur, Tundla, Aligarh, Sonipat, Panipat, Kurukshetra, Ambala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Pathankot Jn and Jammu Tawi.

This extension is the result of the efforts of the people of Rourkela. Their movement to provide better connectivity and facilities at Rourkela should be energized by this initial result.

From an initial look, Rourkela has good connectivity to places in the west (Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, etc.) and Kolkata.

With the above mentioned train the connectivity to Delhi will be decent and as mentioned their will be new connectivity to many new cities in the North. (Earlier there was only a biweekly train to/from Varanasi.)

In terms of connectivity to Southern cities the main trains are: the daily Allepey train with stoppages at Vizianagaram, Vizag, Vijaywada, Chennai, Coimbatore, Palghat, and Kochi (Ernakulum); thrice a week to/from Bangalore via Vijaywada and Tirupati; and weekly to Hyderabad. So the connectivity to Bangalore and Hyderabad needs to be improved urgently. Connectivity to/from Hyderabad could be easily improved by extending the biweekly Sambalpur-Nizamabad express to Rourkela. (One needs to check the current rake-sharing arrangements for it.)

The site http://rourkelarail.wetpaint.com/page/DEMANDS lists a bunch of demands from some railfans from Rourkela. It would help if they make a prioritized list of their demands for trains (new, extensions, frequency increases): Top, Top 3, Top 5. Note that diversions and rerouting of trains is extremely rare as the people in the current routes (who will lose that train) will oppose it. So such demands undermine the effort.

(Thanks to a reader for the pointer.)

Following is from a report in Telegraph.

The Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) for setting up the Rs 2.7 lakh crore petroleum, chemicals and petrochemicals investment region (PCPIR) near Paradip was signed between the state and the Centre today.

The PCPIR will come up over 284.15sqkm in Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts with a proposed investment of Rs 2,77,734 crore.

While Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) chairman-cum managing director Priyabrata Patnaik represented the state, additional secretary of the department of chemical and petrochemicals Geeta Menon signed on behalf of the Union government. Patnaik said, “The MoA was signed and the project has got legal sanction. All the work for the project will now proceed according to the plan.”

… Sources said the state government has requested the Centre to take up the project work in the 12th five year plan. Under the plan, an airport will come up at Paradip and two direct roads from Bhubaneswar to Puri Paradeep will be built. One of these will begin from Uttara Square on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar.

Idco will act as a nodal department to help the government develop the PCPIR. “A meeting chaired by CM Naveen Patnaik is likely to be held this week to finalise the detailed project report.”

An apex body under the chairmanship of the chief minister has already been constituted to look into the implementation of the project. Under the proposed plan, a regional development authority (RDA) will be set up. The RDA will have autonomous power and other authorities will not be able to intervene in the work of the RDA.

… Officials hope that land acquisition for the project would not be a problem. “Instead of taking lands directly from people, we will go for swapping of land. If the government takes one acre of land, the same area of land will be allotted to the owner in another place,” said an official associated with the project.

Sources said the government had asked the Centre to build a coastal corridor that would connect Paradip to Chennai. “Andhra Pradesh has also supported Orissa. The Centre has taken the demand seriously,” said the official.

The Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) will be the anchor tenant for the project. The PCPIR will also include the IOCL’s refinery at Paradip, which in the first phase, will have an investment of Rs 29,777 crore. The refinery will have a crude and vacuum distillation unit, a hydro-cracking unit and a delayed coker unit. It will also have an integrated gasification combined cycle plant for production of steam, power and hydrogen from petroleum coke for captive use in the refinery.

Another leading player, Deepak Fertilizers, will set up a greenfield ammonium nitrate plant in the PCPIR. Tata Steel and the South Africa-based Sasol have expressed interest in setting up a coal to liquid project under the PCPIR. The project is likely to come up by 2018 in an area of 3,000 acres. The plant will produce 80,000 barrels of liquid fuel from coal per day.

According to the plan, Rs 13,634 crore will be invested for infrastructure development in the PCPIR. Of this, the Centre will provide Rs 716 crore under Viability Gap Funding (VGF) to ensure infrastructure linkages such as rail, road (national highways), ports, airports and telecom through public-private partnership. The state’s share will be Rs 1,796 crore while the remaining Rs 11,122 crore will be generated through private participation.