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The following is from http://rc.orissa.gov.in/index3.asp?linkid=30&sublinkid=411.

PRESS RELEASE

DT.20.03.2008

GOVERNMENT OF ORISSA PRESS RELEASE

New Delhi March 20, 2008

Shri Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister, Orissa met Smt. Ambika Soni, Union Minister, Tourism & Culture today and discussed about various tourism projects of the State. The Chief Minister demanded for an early sanction of Rs.50 crore for development of tourism infrastructure and facilities in the famous tourism circuit of Bhubaneswar-Konark-Puri-Chilika under the Mega Circuit Scheme. The Union Minister agreed to include the circuit of Bhubaneswar-Konark-Puri-Chilika under the Mega Circuit Scheme and extend all necessary assistance under the scheme for its integrated development. She also agreed to consider release of 50% of the funds immediately.

The Chief Minister asked for a direct flight and a thematic tourist train to connect Varanasi and Bodhigaya with the Buddhist sites of Orissa. This would provide a great boost to employment and tourism in the State. The Union Minister intimated that the Government of India will extend all support for the connectivity of the Buddist sites. She also agreed to take up the matter with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Ministry of Railways soon. She also intimated that the matter of rail connectivity of Bhubaneswar, Banaras and Gaya will be discussed with the Planning Commission and Ministry of Railways soon.

The Chief Minister urged the Union Minister to take up the project of sound and light show for Konark, which is a world heritage site and also for the historic Barabati Fort at Cuttack. The Union Minister was also requested for expeditious completion of the sound and light show at Khandagiri. The Chief Minister also demanded for better maintenance of the historical monuments, Buddhist sites, temples and other protected monuments by the Archeological Survey of India.

Following is excerpted from a report in tathya.in. The various projects that were cleared are:

• A 12 MTPA Greenfield steel mill at Astaranga in Puri district by Navayug Steels Limited with an investment of Rs.34,000 crore. Linkage for iron ore has not been covered in the proposed mega project. The Navayug Group is setting up a port in Astaranga with an investment of Rs.6000 crore and a 2640 mw mega thermal power plant with an investment of Rs.11200 crore in Astaranga.
• Bhusan Steels Limited (BSL), which is setting up a 3.10 MTPA steel mill in Meramundali in Dhenkanal was allowed to expand it’s capacity to produce 9 mtpa with an additional investment of Rs.20,804 crore.
• Reliable Sponge’s proposal to set up a 0.25 MTPA steel plant along with a 24 mw captive power plant having a total investment of Rs.227.13 crore was cleared by the Authority.
• Emami Paper Mills Limited (EPML) proposal for a 1.32 lakh ton per annum Newsprint unit along with a co-generation power plant for an investment of Rs.500 crore was cleared.  EPML has established a paper mill at Balasore in 1982 and the new plant will come up in the same area. 
• Purvi Bharat Paper & Power (PBPP) has proposed for a 33,000 TPA writing & printing paper mill at Choudwar in Cuttack district with an investment of Rs.90.50 crore.
• The proposal to set up 5 mw solar park near Bhubaneswar with an investment of Rs.125 crore by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) received clearance of the Authority.
• In total, the State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) on 17 March cleared the proposed investment of Rs.55,650 crore in 6 projects.

Following is an excerpt from a report in the Economic Times.

Railways may seek Chinese help in developing railway stations at Bhubaneswar and Bypanahalli in Bangalore.

A high-level Chinese delegation is visiting India from tomorrow to understand the Indian Railway system in a better way as part of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between both the countries.

The 13-member delegation headed by Wu Wei, Director of Sino-India Railway Cooperation Working Group will visit Agra, Bhubaneswar, Mumbai and Bangalore during their 12-day visit.

… The two countries’ cooperation in rail sector is envisaged in the MoU signed on January 14 during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Beijing. The agreement, valid for three years, envisages development of rail-related programmes of mutual interest.

… The team would visit railway station at Bhubaneswar and Bypanahalli to explore the possibility of developing these stations at the international level. "After visiting these places, the team would share their views with us about the way to go ahead with the project, said the official.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

All most all the artistes said that they were not able to arrange a square meals for them before the Bhubaneswar Municipal Commissioner assigned them the task of wall painting. "Now we are flooded with offers from Mumbai, Delhi and Private Individuals to do wall paintings for their concerned organisations," said the team leader Simanchal Mallick.

Sharing the dais with the BMC Commissioner, Mallick said he was bit nervous before the Press. "Though I am a qualified artist, I wasn’t able to arrange even Rs 30 a day for my sustenance before this assignment," he said, adding that he even had left the profession and engaged in other profession.

… Thanks to the initiatives of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Commissioner. Things have started changing.

Simanchal continued in the last three months, they have been so far able to earn Rs 11 lakh by painting walls in different parts of the city. Bhubaneswar Municipal Commissioner has promised to give more works in the near future. "We do use weather coats and other modern technology to give it a permanent look.

The paintings would last for five to seven years," he said.

Giving a detailed plan, Commissioner Sarangi said that 13 more walls would be painted "We just decide upon the wall that comes under public eyes. If any individual wishes to paint a wall he must enter into an agreement with the Bhubaneswar Municipal Commissioner.

… She further continued that Bhubaneswar Municipal Commissioner wants to project Bhubaneswar as the face of the entire Orissa. All the paints relating to the composite culture of Orissa will be painted in the city walls.

Following is from the PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=36250.

The Minister for Civil Aviation, Shri Praful Patel informed the Parliament today the target date for completion of modernization process of the 35 non-metro airports by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), is March 2010.

New Terminal Buildings expandable on modular basis are being constructed at Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Agatti, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Goa, Jaipur, Lucknow, Indore, Khajuraho, Madurai, Mangalore, Port Blair, Ranchi, Raipur, Rajkot, Trivandrum, Trichy, Udaipur, Varanasi and Vishakhapatnam airports. Modification/expansion of existing Terminal Buildings is being undertaken at airports in Agra, Agartala, Coimbatore, Dimapur, Guwahati, Imphal, Jammu, Nagpur, Patna, Pune and Vadodara.

Airside works including expansion and strengthening of runway for wide bodied aircraft operations, extension/new construction of Apron for more parking of aircrafts, link taxiways and parallel taxi tracks are being taken up at these airports as per requirement. At 24 of these airports, cityside development through Public Private Partnership is being undertaken. Bids for pre-qualification have been received for Amritsar and Udaipur airports.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

The Government has approached the Indian Airports Authority of India for night landing facilities at the Biju Patnaik Airport here. The IAAI authorities have assured that a Terminal Approach Radar would soon be installed which could enable night landing facilities. The night landing facilities would help the local hospitality industries occupancy rates, Mishra said. A proposal has been mooted for three more airports other than Bhubaneswar and Jharsuguda for improving connectivity.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Hindustan Times.

In percentage terms, Tier 2 cities like Hyderabad, Pune and Bhubaneswar are creating more white-collar jobs than the old employment hubs of Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, says a new survey. In percentage terms in fact, for every job Delhi has created this year, Hyderabad has created nearly two.

The cyber city has seen the fastest growth among all cities: from 46,605 new jobs in 2006-07, it is projected to jump to 60,427 new jobs in 2007-08, a rise of 30 per cent. (The projection is based on actual figures till December 2007). Pune comes second, projected to create 28 per cent more new jobs in 2007-08 as compared to 2006-07. Bhubaneswar sees a growth of 22.1 per cent, though its base is smaller than both Hyderabad and Pune.

By contrast, in Delhi, new jobs are projected to grow by 17.4 per cent. It does better than Mumbai, however, which is projected to reach only 11.4 per cent growth. Chennai, at 9.5 per cent, fares even worse.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Hindu. (See also http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/?p=526, http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/?p=480  and http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/?p=319 )

Construction companies eyeing the access controlled, six-lane expressway projects of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) are likely to get investment opportunities for at least four such projects spread over 495 km over the next few months.

They are Chandikhol-Jagatpur-Bhubaneswar (70 kilometre length, estimated cost Rs 761 crore), Delhi-Hapur (47 km, Rs 474 crore), the 198-km stretch of Vijayawada-Elluru-Rajamundri (Rs 1,602 crore) and the 180-km stretch on Delhi-Agra highway (Rs 1,918 crore). The feasibility reports for these projects are already completed and the work is likely to be awarded in about six months, said NHAI officials. Toll collection

These projects are for widening the current four-lane highways into six lanes and operating them for certain durations.

Companies would have to bid competitively for these projects on a revenue-sharing basis. Thus companies would have to bid on the extent of toll revenue that they are ready to share with the Government if they are allowed to operate the roads.

Since these highways are already four-lane stretches, the road operators can start toll collection even during the project construction phase from an ‘appointed date’ (within six months of winning the project), mutually decided by NHAI and the road operator. The toll revenues will be routed to an escrow account.

… From the NHAI perspective, these projects have emerged as money-spinners, with companies willing to foot the entire construction cost and part with two per cent to 48.06 per cent of their revenues in the initial leg of the project.

At the end of the concession period, which is about 12 to 15 years duration, the winning firms have agreed to part with 12 per cent to 59 per cent share of toll revenues.

Their web site is http://www.ngtechinc.com/. Following is from Samaja.

See http://oceanworldwaterpark.com.

They are located between Cuttack and Bhubaneswar and their Physical address is:

www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/wp-content/uploads/image/20080229a_001101010.jpg

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

The NSC has transformed itself from the usual non-profit-earning PSU into a vibrant entity.

Private sector seed companies have, till now, had a virtual monopoly over the production and sale of seeds, mostly hybrid seeds, of high-value crops. This was chiefly because the public sector seed producers, besides being fewer in number, remained focused right from the beginning on the production of seeds of low-value but high-volume crops (basically cereals), where profits were low though the quantities to be handled were large. Besides, public sector units (PSUs) made little attempt to keep pace with time.

However, the much-needed change in the public seed sector is coming about now with the largest player, the National Seeds Corporation (NSC), adopting a corporate culture and deploying state-of-the-art technology to produce seeds even of high-value crops and hybrids.

Indeed, as could be expected, this change in the work culture has transformed the NSC from the usual non-profit-earning PSU into a vibrant entity striving to find a place among the mini-Ratnas, if not the Navratnas. The headquarters of the NSC and four of its regional units in Bhopal, Jaipur, Secunderabad and Bangalore, have already acquired the ISO 9001-2000 certificate and the remaining regional units are in the process of doing so.

… Indeed, the man behind this incredible transformation is the present chairman and managing director B B Pattanaik." I would be able to declare a much higher dividend for the current year, "asserts an enthusiastic Pattanaik. He has not only motivated the aging employees of this 45-year-old corporation for better performance but has also taken several new initiatives to be in a position to rub shoulders with the well-run private sector seed companies, many of which now have business tie-ups with the NSC.

… The NSC’s tissue culture unit with a capacity to churn out annually about two lakh test tube-raised plantlets for propagation of the banana is coming up in Bhubaneswar and may become operational by the next month. For research and development back-up, the NSC gets support from the vast agricultural research network of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the state agriculture universities. This helps the NSC to add, on an average, around 20 new varieties and hybrids to its product range every year.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Economic Times.

IT consulting firm MindTree Consulting Ltd would the start construction of its proposed development centre here from April, official sources said.

MindTree Consulting is one of the four major firms which had proposed investment in Orissa’s IT sector, the others being Genpact Limited, ICICI Eastern Regional Hub and Wipro Limited.

According to Orissa’s Information Technology Minister S N Patro, MindTree Consulting Limited had proposed to invest nearly Rs 200 crore in its project here.

"While Wipro will invest Rs 100 crore in its project, ICICI Eastern Regional Hub proposes to spend Rs 500 crore here," the Minister said, adding that Genpact had proposed to invest Rs 200 crore.

Ecotourism plan for Balianta and Balipatna near Bhubaneswar:

The first RTP is in Hyderabad. Both RTPs will have a relationship with the National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD) in Hyderabad. (New indian Express also reports on this.)

Update: Times of India also writes about it with headlines "2,500 years ago, a city bigger than Athens in Orissa" and "Lost city had all urban amenities." See also this Telegraph report.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Hindu.

Researchers involved in excavation at the ancient city of Sisupalgarh on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar have come across a number of artefacts and structures that throw light on the existence of a flourishing urban life during the pre-historic period.

 

The geophysical research showed large-scale patterns of subsurface architecture such as streets, which were visible linking the gateways in the interior of the site, and a large ancient perimeter area around the pillar zone, said R.K. Mohanty of the Pune-based Deccan College and Monica L. Smith of the University of California here on Thursday.

These researchers, with the help of students from different universities and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), began their work in 2000, about 50 years after the first excavation.

After several deep trenches, they have now exposed 18 previously unknown pillars and several associated structures on a mound within the fortification wall.

Sisupalgarh was absolutely visible through naked eyes as well as from the space and this could be one of its kinds of cultural heritage in the whole of eastern India, the researchers claimed.

“It seemed to be a large city, which could have been governed under one ruler. The ancient population inhabiting the place was estimated to be 25,000,” said Mr. Mohanty, an archaeologist.

“The civilisation could have lasted for more than 1,000 years between 3rd BC and 3rd AD,” he said.

Researchers worked on the place adjacent to a “majestic gate” excavated by Prof B.B. Lal in 1950. They found house foundations of laterite block architecture. The habitation areas also contained very large quantities of household pottery such as bowls and jars along with other household artefacts such as iron nails and terracotta ornaments including bangles, finger rings, pendants and ear spools.

Pointing out that the latest debris deposits and pillars indicated that it was meant for public use, Ms. Smith said the ancient artisans at Sisupalgarh were manufacturing potteries massively and those were in rapid use.

“It suggested that the people, animals and trash were closely integrated in the crowded space of the city. …

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard. (See also the report in Financial Express.)

Mumbai-based realty major Raheja group will be investing around Rs 3000 1000 crore for the development of the first information technology (IT) park in Orissa.

Alongside, a 50 Mw power plant, cold storage in the public-private-partnership (PPP) mode and a hotel would also be set up by the group. The group also plans to enter the retail space and set up an IT development centre after surveying the potential.

The park would be christened Mindspace cum Techno-campus Park. The group already has such Mindspace cum techno-campus parks in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

… As per the presentation, in the first phase an incubation centre on 30-40 acres would be developed. The entire IT park would come up over 100 acres.

The plan envisages development of the park within the next 8-10 months, provided land is made available by the Orissa government in the next couple of months.

Following is from Samaja.

Following is an excerpt from a report in New Indian Express.

In all, there are 14 aquariums spread over 0.8 acre. Among them four house marine species and the rest freshwater species equipped with titanium chiller.

All the aquariums are equipped with `insitu’ filtration and recycling mechanism. In fact, two large size aquariums measure 3.5 meters in length and 0.9 meter in width. Attractions include well-researched education materials on aquaria, said zoo director Ajit Patnaik, adding, the materials are displayed on trans-slides boards.

One of the key objectives of the endeavour is to educate visitors about the rising pollution and the resultant impact on the aquatic life. About Rs 10 lakh alone has been invested on education materials.

There is also a special section which depicts the uniqueness of the marine ecosystem of the State. One of the freshwater aquariums represents fish fauna of the adjoining Kanjia lake.

The `moated’ enclosure has been developed over an area of five acres to provide a near-natural ambience to the elephants. The enclosure encompasses components like natural vegetation, water hole and adequate space for the movement of the animals.

The enclosure would stimulate their natural behaviour. Further, they will provide adequate opportunity to the visitors to watch the elephants literally in wild, Patnaik said. An elevation point has been put up to ensure better viewing.