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Following are excerpts from a New Indian Express report.

Work on the Genetech City, the proposed bio-technology park at Andharua, on the outskirts of the city, will start from December if things go as per schedule.

The bio-technology park will be developed in PPP mode through competitive bidding route and the Science and Technology Department has invited tenders from private firms for development of the park on 54 acres provided by the State Government.

Eight developers – Akruti Nirman Limited, Mumbai, Eldeco Infrastructure and Properties Limited, New Delhi, Bharat Biotech Infrastructure, Hyderabad, TCG Urban Infrastructure and Holding Ltd, Mumbai, Ambience Developers and Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, Bhubaneswar Entertainment World Developers, Indore, Ramkey Infrastructure Ltd, Hyderabad and Unitech Limited, Kolkata have bided for the project.

The bidders have been asked to make their presentation to the Government on the project and bid selection will be completed by the end of this month, official sources said.

While 25 acres of the Genetech City will be used as bio-technology and pharmaceutical corridor, an information technology centre will be developed on another 15 acres. A bio-tech incubator centre will be developed on an area of 10 acres, sources said. IDCO has been entrusted with the job of infrastructure development of the park.

Bhubaneswar has recorded an appreciable increase in income tax collections. Economic times reports that personal income tax increased by 30% this year. Excerpts:

” A similar trend was seen in Bhubaneshwar. While the corporate tax collections from this zone declined by 11.43% to Rs 584 crore, personal income tax collections grew by 29.62%.”

It must be added that corporate tax collection decreased by 11.5%. Something to analyze.

Update: The Orissa government’s tourism web page has additional information on the Shamuka beach project.

Following is an excerpt on this from Expresshospitality.com.

Shamuka Beach in Orissa near Puri is being developed as a high-end luxury tourism destination by the Orissa Tourism Development Corporation. The department has acquired a 1000 acre property south of Puri, and is in the process of acquiring 2000 acres more. It is a natural island and is being developed by the name Shamuka Beach project. Divulging further details about the project, Asit K Tripathi, secretary, Orissa Tourism, says, "It is going to be one of India’s best integrated, dedicated and up market tourism project, with only 5-star hotels. We had advertised and the response has been overwhelming. We have got responses from leading players in the country as well as abroad. ITC-Welcomgroup, the DLF-Hilton combine, Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, IHHR’s Ananda Spa, Casino Group of Hotels Earth (CGH Earth), The Oberoi Group, Apeejay Surrendra Group, Marriott International, and Carlson Hotels Asia Pacific have all shown interest. We can allot land to approximately 20 national and international hotel brands. We are coming out with a blue print to develop infrastructure. The third stage will be to establish a golf course and convention center. This will raise the value of Orissa as a leisure destination." "Although we have 934 hotels in Orissa and 2000 rooms, the majority cater to primarily low spending groups, and the rest target high spending tourists or corporates. With this initiative, within 1-2 years, we will have more quality rooms," says Devi Prasad Mishra, tourism minister, Orissa. Samukha Beach and Puri, as well as industrial growth centers like Paradeep, Talcher, Kalinganagar, as well as Jharsuguda and Angul have generated interest from the hospitality industry in recent times – especially budget hotels and business hotels. The no-frills brand of The Indian Hotels Company, Ginger Hotels opened their first hotel in Bhubaneshwar. Carlson Hotels Asia Pacific plans to open its Radisson Hotels & Resorts in Chilika, Puri and Bhubaneswar. Cabana Group, the master licensee of the world-renowned chain of hotels – Best Western International from California is setting-up an international standard culinary college cum 5-star property in Bhubaneswar, and is eyeing Puri to develop the brand.

This is reported in many papers, such as Telegraph. Thus, the Bhubaneswar Trident Hilton will become simply Trident.

Minister of Civil Aviation, Mr. Praful Patel was visiting Orissa and he made some statements regarding airports in Orissa. following are excerpts from various news reports on this.

Economic Times/PTI:

The Centre plans to set up another airport at Jharsuguda in western Orissa besides upgrading the existing Biju Patnaik Airport here to that of international standard, Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel said on Monday.

Announcing the Centre’s plan, he said that as one airport is not adequate for the state, the Centre has decided to develop another one in Orissa.

“The Centre will also upgrade the Bjiu Patnaik Airport since there are a lot of activities here,” Patel told a meeting here.

The union minister’s announcement about an international airport came in the wake of rapid industrialisation drive in the state with investors making a beeline for it.

The need for an airport of international standard was also echoed by state Tourism Minister Debi Prasad Mitra.

“An airport of international standard is essential for the state’s overall growth,” Mishra said.

Besides catering to the business houses, the international airport would help tour operators bring foreign tourists to the state which has a 480 km coastline, sanctuaries, historical monuments like the Sun Temple at Konark and beaches, he said.

Tathya.in:

The Union Civil Aviation Ministry is in process of preparing a Cabinet Memorandum to be placed to make Bhubaneswar an international airport.

This was disclosed by Prafulla Patel, Union Minister for Civil Aviation in the sidelines of a media conference held here on 24 September.

He said the Memorandum is being given final shape and soon will be sent to the Cabinet for approval.

The demand to declare the Biju Patnaik Airport at Bhubaneswar as an international airport has gained ground in view of the abundant tourism potential in the state, said Mr.Patel.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Statesman on this.

Care Hospital today announced its plans to commission a 100-bed multi-specialised Aditya Care Hospital located near Municipal Kalyan Mandap at Chandrasekharpur.
… The Group will be investing around Rs 15 crores in the project and the facility will be scaled up to 300 beds over the next two years with an additional investment of Rs 50 crores.

The Bhubaneswar centre will be equipped to handle comprehensive cardiac services, including catheterisation procedures and cardiac surgeries. The focus will also be on gastroenterology, laparoscopic/gastro surgery; nephrology and urology; neurosurgery along with critical care and trauma care. For the first time in Orissa, a team of eight cardiologists will be attending to the needs of patients at the Aditya Care Hospital.

Talking to reporters here yesterday Dr Veeraprasad, Chief Operating Officer, Care Hospitals said, “… Nearly 20 full-time professionals will provide comprehensive medical services in a unique concept of teams and the unit will be networked to support secondary and primary health care units in the state.’’

Following is an excerpt from a New Indian Express report on them.

Do wrong credit card bills scare the daylight out of you while your bank doesn?t give a damn to your complaints?

Are you worried that sanitation work in your locality leaves a lot to be desired and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation is not bothered? Have problems with weights and measures issues but you don’t know who to look forward to? You can turn to a group of senior citizens who would guide you how to go about it.

Assembled under the banner of Orissa Consumer Welfare Foundation (OCWF), they have joined hands to make consumers aware about their rights, and in cases, they would even take up your cause and fight on your behalf.

They may be ageing but they come from different walks of life and with a varied experience behind them. Some of them have long been social workers while others have put in decades as professionals.

All that one has to do as a consumer is write to the foundation and drop complaints in their drop-boxes kept at two points in the City. Members of OCWF would get back to them seeking an audience so that next course of action can be decided. …

“Over 90 percent of the consumers are not even aware that when one gets LPG cylinder, the delivery man must weigh it first. The foundation would take up consumer rights activism in an organised manner,” Jena said.

Rout said, OCWF would help individual consumers in different ways. “Not many know who to approach to in case of rights violation and how. We will draft letters, guide them with technicalities.”

The two contact points of OCWF are: 95 & 96, Surya Nagar as well as Sri Aurobindo House, Near Syndicate Bank Building, Kalpana Square.

A similar organization called “Consumer Protection Council, Rourkela” already exists in Rourkela and they even have a website. Their address, phone number, fax and email are:

Consumer Protection Council, Rourkela
C/66, Sector-2
Rourkela-769006. Orissa. India
Ph/Fax: +91-661-2472521, 2640810
Email: vaidya@advantageconsumer.com or rkl_cpcrkl@sancharnet.in

Following is an excerpt from a Pragativadi report.

The capital city of the state, Bhubaneswar, is the oldest city of the world that grew up 5000 years ago.

This historic evidence, unearthed by the Indian National Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) in its survey report, was submitted to the Orissa government on Thursday.

The report that has proposed the state government to take necessary measures by writing a letter to the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) to declare Bhubaneswar as a heritage city, has been accepted in principle by the government. …

The survey report states that the state capital city traces its history to the 4th Century BC, when it was the capital of the Kalinga empire.

In the 7th Century BC, the city became the capital of the Sailodbhava kings under whose reign it had witnessed a golden era.

In the next 500 years, during the reign of the Sailodbhava over 7,000 temples each of a unique design were built.

These temples are architectural wonders in terms of their decorations and hand carved designs.

This great architectural tradition, flourished till 17th Century.

Bhubaneswar is one of the richest cities in India where Lord Shiva is known as Tribhuvaneswara or Lord of the Three Worlds, from which the city derives its name. Bhubaneswar is also known as temple town and Cathedral city on account of its many temples in the extravagant Orissan style that are a true manifestation of the architectural potential of the people of this historic city.

Some of the temples of Bhubaneswar have stood witness to the history of this city that dates back to 25 centuries.

During the meeting, the INTACH representatives briefed the chief minister that about 199 temples Bhubaneswar and 239 in Puri were unprotected monuments.

The chief minister later directed the concerned officials to spend funds from the 12th Finance Commission (TFC) to preserve the monuments.

He also directed the officials to take steps for the protection of all maths near Jagannath Temple in Puri.

The archaeology department would remain in charge of the conservation of these temples and maths.

The meeting also decided to paint all the buildings near Bindusagar in a single colour.
All care would be taken to clear encroachers from the sides of historical monuments.

The orissa.gov.in site has a page on PPP (private-public partnership) which contains the Orissa draft PPP policy and a list of projects in Orissa planned to be funded through PPP. Following are excerpts from a recent report in Telegraph.

The Orissa government is planning to invest Rs 125,000 crore in 36 infrastructure projects to be taken up under the private-public-partnership programme.

…Under the programme, the state government will leverage its financial resources with that of the Centre, to prepare a shelf of projects. These will be taken forward through a transparent selection process. There will also be viability gap funding, if the projects are initially loss-making.

The policy will also create Orissa Infrastructure Development Fund with a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore. Projects that are part of the programme include roads, bridges, ports and harbours, airports, airstrips, inland container depots, industrial parks, special economic zones and townships.

“We have already entered into agreements with IL&FS and PricewaterhouseCoopers, who will be the consultants for these projects. A few more will be empanelled soon,” said Parag Gupta, special secretary of the state secretariat’s public-private-partnership cell. …

Sources said IL&FS was picked as a consultant because of its joint venture with state-run Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation for the Bhubaneswar Integrated Road Network project. PwC is also a consultant for several road projects. The state has also signed an agreement with the Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (IDFC) in this regard. IDFC is funding some projects in association with Nabard.

“Two more consultants, including Ernst and Young and another Calcutta-based firm, will be enrolled soon,” the sources said.

The empanelled agencies will help identify projects that need to be taken up, prepare pre-feasibility and detailed project reports. They will then hand the reports over to respective departments.

Some of the projects being taken up are the Capital Region Ring Road, to span 98km, and the Bhubaneswar-Paradip Road, a 90km stretch. Each of the projects will cost around Rs 700 crore. They will be executed by the state public works department.

Other projects include sector-specific infotech SEZs, which will cost around Rs 352 crore and an IT & corporate tower in Bhubaneswar to be set up for Rs 146 crore.

Following is an excerpt from a report on this.

The UK-based Dawnay Day Group plans to invest $1.2 billion to set up four-star properties in the country over the next 10 years.

It has already committed $200 million in the Indian hospitality market. …

Mandeep Lamba, managing director, Dawnay Day Hotels India, told DNA Money that an initial public offer (IPO) over the next 4-5 years could not be ruled out either.

The current commitment of $200 million is being funded through internal accruals. Already, land has been acquired in Pune, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Prospective properties are likely to come up in Chennai, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Mumbai and Kolkata.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

… Forum Projects, which now has a land bank worth over Rs 3,500 crore, is also investing big beyond Bengal. …

A mixed-use city-centre development in Adityapur across 22.5 acres with hospitals, club, cineplex, retail, residential and conferencing facilities, and a 550,000-sq ft lifestyle mall in Bhubaneswar with 1,200 car parks are the other large-format projects on the group’s 5.5 million-sq ft retail roadmap.

Following is a bit of information on Sky Airways:

• A report in Telegraph mentions the following:

… Sky Airways (backed by the M.L. Agarwal group, with business interests in Orissa�s mining and steel sectors) …

The package described below are:

• Photo IDS for weavers within the next two years.
• Annual training to improve productivity and skill for 2000 weavers.
•  Apparel design and training centers in Cuttack, Berhampur, Sambalpur, Rourkea and Baripada.
• Development of a fund for the welfare of weavers.
• A raw material bank for handloom materials.
• Integrated project in handloom in Nuapatana.
• Building of 1000 worksheds.
• A handloom museum in Bhubaneswar.

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.

Following are excerpts from Telegraph’s report on it.

Laying the foundation stone of RSB Group’s auto-component complex at Choudwar, Patnaik said the Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited would set up the industrial park that would house several auto-component manufacturers at Choudwar area of Cuttack.

The chief minister added his government would soon announce a policy for development of small and medium industries.

RSB group, a leading engineering and components manufacturing company is setting up Rs 360cr multi-product automobile component manufacturing project near Choudwar over 300 acre.

The project, to be set up in phases over five to seven years, would consist of a forging unit, an iron-casting unit, aluminium die-casting unit, machine shop and assembling unit. The casting and forging unit is expected to generate an estimated annual turnover of Rs 1,600cr by the end of fifth year and would generate employment for 2,500 people by that time.

Group chairman R.K. Behera said the project would cater to the requirement of Tata Motors. …
Ramakrishna Forgings, an Indian firm manufacturing auto components has expressed an interest to establish another plant near Chowdwar.Ipicol officials estimate the likely investment in the sector to be more than Rs 2,000 crore. Ipicol is trying to lure more investment into the sector by highlighting the easy availability of good quality pig iron and steel ingots, good quality pure aluminum ingots, steel flat products (plates, sheets HR and CR) and rounds.

Following is from a PIB.

The Government accorded approval for undertaking six laning of 6,500 km of National Highways comprising 5,700 km of Golden Quadrilateral and balance 800 km on other sections, under National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase-V.    As per the approved implementation mechanism for NHDP Phase-V, stretches of 100 km or more that have been completed at least two years ago and contractual actions on previous contracts have been completed, are being included in the year-wise programme.   Where the distance between two cities is less than 100 km, such stretches are also being included as exception cases.   Cost per km has been estimated as Rs. 6.34 crore. 

            List of proposed stretches of National Highways in different states under NHDP Phase-V is given below:

SIX LANING OF NATIONAL HIGHWAYS

  Feasibility report for seven stretches have been completed by the technical consultants and detailed is given below: 

STATUS OF FEASIBILITY REPORT FOR SEVEN STRETCHES UNDER NHDP PHASE-V.

 Total 203 firms have applied for pre-qualification for eight stretches under NHDP Phase-V.

            NHDP Phase-V is scheduled for completion by December, 2012.   Estimated civil construction cost for Gurgaon-Kotputli-Jaipur of 225 km is Rs. 1517 crores.  The likely time period for completion is 30 months from the appointed date.

This information was given  by the Minister of State for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Shri K.H. Muniyappa in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

Following is from Dharitri. It also talks about the stadium that is to be built in Berhampur.