___________

Following is excerpted from a report in Business Standard.

Though Orissa has 183 million tonnes of chrome ore, constituting 98 per cent of the total chrome deposits in the country, only 3.27 per cent of this, which comes to about 6 million tonne, has been fully explored till date.

To expedite the exploration and exploitation of chrome reserves in the state, the government has granted mining leases to 15 companies including Ferro Alloys Corporation (Facor) and Balasore Alloys.

Of the total chrome reserves in Orissa, Sukinda area in Jajpur district has the lion’s share of 173 million tonne (mt). This includes low grade chrome.

The places in Sukinda where the chrome deposits are found are Kamarda (2 mt), Saruabili (9 mt), Sukrangi (7.5 mt), Kaliapani (25 mt), Bhimatanger (98 mt), Kalarangi (0.5 mt) and Chingudipal and Tailangi (13 mt).

Out of the total deposits found in Sukinda area, 18 million tonne are of inferior quality, says the state steel and mines minister, Raghunath Mohanty said.

The Kamakshyanagar in Dhenkanal district, which adjoins Sukinda valley, has about 4.42 million tonne reserve of chromite in locations like Sandhasar, Tulasiposhi, Haladigunda and Kathapal. The estimated reserves at Kathapal are 2 million tonne.

Mohanty said, the total chromite reserve of the state is estimated at 183 million tonne, out of which 177.42 million tonne occur in Sukinda and Kamakshyanagar area.

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 an excerpt from a report in azcentral.com about mine clean up in Arizona.

Bankrupt Tucson miner Asarco LLC has agreed to pay $30 million to clean up three contaminated mine sites in Arizona and settle the state’s longstanding environmental claims against the company.

… The property, including $4 million to improve and maintain one of Arizona’s few remaining riparian areas, compensates the state for Asarco’s contamination over the years of Mineral Creek, a tributary to the Gila River in Pinal County.

… The $1.6 billion "global settlement" would clean up some 75 sites across the country that have been polluted by Asarco over more than 100 years of active mining and smelting activity.

I wonder if Orissa government can make similar claims against those mine owners in Orissa who pollute the environment. They should start looking carefully at the Sukinda Valley and the Joda-Barbil area which rank very high among polluted places in the world.

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.

Note, that Jajpur-Rd Duburi is also being 4-laned. With all these 4-laning, Kalinganagar area will be surrounded by four 4-lane segment: NH-5, NH-200, NH-215 and Jajpur Rd-Duburi.

(The above map fragment is from an wikipedia map.)

There will also be two four lane paths from Kalinganagar area to Rourkela.

 With approved plans to four-lane NH 42 between Angul and Sambalpur, the state govt. needs to four lane the segment between Angul and Talcher to have a seamless 4-lane transition between NH-42 and NH-200 at Angul-Talcher.

There is plan to four-lane Bhubaneswar-Puri. The Orissa government should pursue the four-laning of the following:

• NH-42 from Cuttack to Angul
• NH-23 from Talcher to NH-6

The Orissa government should team up with Jharkhand to 4-lane

• NH-23 from Rourkela to Ranchi
• NH-83 from Jamshedpur to NH-6
• NH-5 between NH-6 and Balasore (the last two need for port access in the upcoming ports in the Balasore district)

The Orissa government should team up with West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh and Maharashtra for four-laning NH-6 completely.

These actions will 4-lane the upper part of Orissa with fairly direct 4-lane paths from many areas of Orissa to Delhi and Mumbai. (Fairly direct 4-lane connections exist between Orissa to the south and Kolkata.)

Following is from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=46329.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today gave its approval for the development of 4 laning of (i) Panikoili-Keonjhar-Rimouli, (ii) Rimouli-Roxy-Rajmundra sections of NH-215 and (iii) Chandikhole-Duburi-Talcher Section of NH-200 in the State of Orissa under NHDP Phase III A on BOT Basis.

The project cost of (i) Panikoili-Keonjhar-Rimouli section (163 km) is estimated as Rs.1170.59 crore including Rs.84.40 crore towards Land Acquisition (LA), Rehabilitation and Resettlement and preconstruction. Similarly, the estimated cost for Rimouli-Roxy-Rajmundra (106 km) and Chandikhole-Duburi-Talcher Section (133 km) are Rs.849.05 crore and Rs.969.63 crore respectively. The cost towards LA, R&R and preconstruction of other two projects are Rs.195.29 crore and Rs.185.63 crore respectively. The Government would provide the viability gap funding (VGF), which would not exceed 40% of the total project cost excluding the cost of LA, R&R and pre-construction.

The project will be developed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) through the Private Sector Concessionaires who will be selected by NHAI following two stage bidding process. The first stage of the bidding process i.e. pre-qualification of the bidders has already been completed by NHAI. The second stage of bidding process is in progress.

The Concession period for the Panikoili-Keonjhar-Rimouli section will be 20 years. For Chandikhole-Duburi-Talcher Section and Rimouli-Roxy-Rajmundra section the concession period is 18 and 25 years respectively.

*****

AD/SH/LV

Following is from a report in Business standard:

The Orissa government today cleared projects worth Rs 1,27, 727 crore in steel, aluminium, power, downstream and ore beneficiation sectors.

The list includes 3 projects in the steel sector, 2 projects in the aluminium sector, 6 projects in the power sector, one downstream unit, and two beneficiation and pelletisation units.

… enhancement of the steel capacity of Jindal Stainless Limited (JSL) from 1.6 million tonne per annum (mtpa) to 3.2 mtpa at Kalinganagr Industrial Complex at an investment of Rs 16,266 crore and enhancement of capacity of Visa Steel in the same location from 0.35 mtpa to 1.5 mtpa at an investment of Rs 4995 crore were approved by HLCA.

The public sector aluminum major Nalco’s proposal to set up a 0.5 mtpa alumina smelter and 1260 mw power plant in two phases (840Mw + 420 Mw) at an investment of Rs 16,345.89 crore was also approved. Though the company preferred to set up the project at Brajarajnagar, the location might change. The company is seeking 275.30 hectares of land for the smelter and 575.7 hectares for the power plant.

Similarly, the proposal of the Navayuga Steels for setting up a 12 mtpa port based steel complex at Astaranga in Puri district at an investment of Rs 34,000 crore was cleared by the HLCA. The project will come up in 4 phases and the government will not commit any raw material linkage to it.

Though the company requires 4000 acres of land, the government will assess the land requirement as per the benchmarking report after the company submits the detailed project report (DPR), the minister added.

The public sector National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) was given the green signal to set up a 3200 Mw coal based mega power plant at an investment of Rs19,840 crore near the village Gajamara in Dhenkanal district. It requires about 3000 acres of land for the project and will source water from Mahanadi.

However, Jindal Stainless’ proposal to set up 1000 Mw Independent Power Producer (IPP) at an investment of Rs 4090 crore in the same location did not find favour with HLCA with the committee asking the company to change the site of the project.

Other projects which received the nod of HLCA are Rs 6800 crore investment proposal of RSB Metal-tech for setting up 1.4 mtpa alumina refinery, 0.35 mtpa aluminium smelter and 900 Mw CPP at an investment of Rs 6800 crore, Kalinga Energy’s 1000Mw thermal power project at an investment of Rs 4261 crore at Babuchakuli, Arati Steel’s 500Mw thermal power project at Ghantikhal in Cuttack district, Rs 4994 crore investment proposal of Chambal Infrastructures and Ventures Limited for setting up of 1200Mw thermal power plant at Siaria in Dhenkanal district.

Besides, Hyderabad based Lanco Solar’s 250 Mw fully integrated plant to manufacture crystalline silicon solar cells at an investment of Rs 2800 crore in Dhenkanal district, Bhushan Power and Steel Limited (BPSL)’s downstream and ancillary complex in Sambalpur district at an investment of Rs 1953.87 crore, JSW Steel’s proposal to set up 7 mtpa iron ore beneficiation plant and 5 mtpa pelletisation plant at Kamalang in Sundergarh district at an investment of Rs 1450 crore were through in today’s meeting.

Besides, the proposal of Welspun Orissa Steel to set up a 4.5 mtpa beneficiation plant at Nayagarh in Keonjhar district and 4.4 mtpa pellet plant at Dhamra in Bhadrakh district with an envisaged investment of Rs 1963 crore, the proposal of Astaranga Power Company to set up a 2460 Mw power plant at Astaranga at an estimated cost of Rs 11,200 crore were approved by the HLCA.

However, the decision on the 700 mw (Rs 1007crore) power plant proposal of Ind Bharat Energy, 1320 mw (Rs 5604 crore) power plant proposal of Sahara India Power Corporation and the 1100 Mw (Rs 4810 crore ) power plant proposal of Visaka Thermal were deferred.

I believe that for Orissa to develop several urban centers and clusters need to be developed. So far many are developing. The ones marked with red are either developed or are in the path of development. The one in purple (Keonjhar) has a good chance of development. The three green ones in the big green zone, denoting Bhwanipatna, Balangir and Phulbani are in need of development. The following table lists what these various urban areas and clusters have or are going to have and what they don’t have and the govt. should make efforts to fulfill those lacunae.

As noted above, all these places should have a university, a medical college, good rail connectivity and several job centers.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

The rural BPO centre will be established by the Tata Business Support Services (TBSS) — the BPO wing and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons — in partnership with Tata Steel Rural Development Society — a corporate NGO managed by the Tata Group for the last 60 years. To start with, it is expected to employ around 200 people.

Sources close to the development said the company has already recruited the first batch of the executives for the BPO unit, who are expected to undergo two months of training at TBSS’ headquarters in Hyderabad. TBSS has developed a specialised training programme in view the fact that most of the new recruits are not computer literate. It currently operates three rural BPO units that employ around 500 people in all.

A spokesperson from Hyderabad-headquartered TBSS confirmed the move. A senior official of the Tata group said the company was looking for graduates and under-graduates with some knowledge of English.

The centre aims at handling the Orissa region front-end and customer support works of group companies including Tata Teleservices and Tata Sky. The BPO unit will also provide services to other firms who have substantial operations in Orissa.

“Opening the BPO unit in Kalinganagar will provide us access to many educated but unemployed youths in semi-urban areas like Jajpur Road and Duburi which have a number of colleges and educational institutions in and around. The education level among the masses in these areas is comparatively high and the aspirations level of the local people is also very high,”said a Tata group executive in charge of human resources development.

“Although most youths in these areas are interested in higher-end and computer-related jobs, there were no opportunity in these places,” the executive added.

The group will initially run the BPO unit in the transit houses and rehabilitation set-up established by the company in Kalinganagar, before moving into a dedicated building in next few months. The centre will start as a voice-based BPO with focus on Bengali, Hindi and English languages other than Oriya.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

The Orissa government plans to develop an airstrip in the Kalinganagar industrial area in Jajpur district to facilitate the movement of the executives of various companies to that area. It will be developed in the public-private-partnership (PPP)mode.

The commissioner-cum- secretary,steel and mines department, Orissa government, has been asked to identify the required land for this purpose. Besides, he will also co-ordinate with other departments and agencies for handing over the required land for the airstrip, state finance minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadai said.

… He said, an overbridge will be constructed at Manpur railway station at an estimated cost of Rs 40 crore.The Union government will contribute Rs 20 crore and the state government will contribute Rs 20 crore for this project.It has already made a budgetary provision for the project during the current year’s budget.

The four laning work of Jajpur-Duburi road, considered to be the lifeline of the Kalinganagar area has started and the Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) has been asked to shift its water pipeline farther from the road to facilitate the four laning work.

Similarly, the work on the Rs 320 crore Duburi-Keonjhar road via Harichandrapur has also started.It is expected to reduce the distance between Duburi and Keonjhar by about 70 kms.

About the rehabilitation of the to be displaced families,Ghadai said, four rehabilitation colonies have been completed and 5 additional colonies are planned to be constructed.The district administration of Jajpur has already given the land for this purpose. The construction work of two of these proposed rehabilitation colonies (at Mantira and Bargadia) will start next week.

In addition, the government is in the process of acquiring about 5000 acres of land for setting up more rehabilitation colonies having the facility of hospital, modern school, colleges, stadiums, bus terminal and market complex, among others.Besides, the Dangadi Community Health Centre (CHC) is proposed to be upgraded to a 60 bed hospital in PPP mode.

As the raw material is being loaded and unloaded in about 5 railway stations in the nearby areas, the environment is getting polluted.Keeping that in view, all the industries have been asked to take up development of plantations in a major way. Besides, the roads connecting to these railway stations also needs to be developed immediately.

Steel and mines minister Pradip Kumar Amat said, all the industries working in the area have been told to contribute to the periphery development of these areas.

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

Stainless steel could shine brighter in India as in their scramble for market share the steel makers want to locate users of steel next to their factories in special economic zones.

Jindal Stainless and Steel Authority of India have plans to capture customers right next to their stainless steel plants.

"We are setting up an SEZ next to our Orissa plant on a 300 acre land which will have shops, which use our steel for making products," pointed out Ratan Jindal, VC & MD, Jindal Stainless.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

The bulk of this investment will be made in the phase-II development of its stainless steel plant in Jajpur, Orissa.

"We will spend about Rs 5,600 crore for setting up capacity of 8 lakh tonnes (0.8 million tonnes) per annum of steel in Jajpur. The plant will be commissioned by 2012," Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Ratan Jindal told journalists.

The company will borrow Rs 3,200 crore from Indian and foreign banks for the project, while Rs 1,000 crore would be raised through external commercial borrowings. Another Rs 1,200 crore would be invested through internal accruals. "The promoters will infuse equity of the balance amount of Rs 200 crore," Jindal said.

The company has already spent Rs 2,250 crore for 0.8 million tonnes capacity in phase-I at Jajpur.

The following is from http://jcdl.in/about.htm.

JCDL is a unique public-private partnership between IDCO and Industries supported by Government of India & Government of Orissa. JCDL has been formed with the objective of undertaking infrastructure development of Steel & Metallurgical Cluster, Jajpur under Industrial Infrastructure Up-gradation Scheme of the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Government of India.

JCDL was incorporated on 9.3.2004 as 100% IDCO owned. Pursuant to the restructuring proposal approved by the Industries Department, Government of Orissa vide their letter vide No. 22474 dated 24.12.2004, Kalinganagar Industries Association (KIA), an Association of industries in the Kalinganagar Industrial Complex. Jajpur has subscribed to the equity capital of JCDL. Now, KIA holds 51% equity capital in JCDL whereas the equity held by IDCO is 49%.

Current approved sub-projects (from http://jcdl.in/app_proj.htm):

Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Government of India had approved Steel & Metallurgical Cluster development project with outlay of Rs.62.50 crores vide their letter No. 5/23/2004/DBA-1 dated 4.8.2004, which was further revised to Rs.80.60 crores vide their letter No. 5/23/1/2004/DBA-I dated 3.4.2006. 

The source of funding includes GOI grant of Rs. 47 crores, Rs. 15.50 crores to be contributed by the stakeholders, and Rs.18.10 crores by IDCO.

The sub-projects sanctioned for implementation with;

Sl. No.	Project	Project Cost (Rs. in crores)
1.	Augmentation of water supply scheme	14.00
2.	Strengthening and up-gradation of Old Military road	26.00
3 .	Road development in Utility corridors	30.60
4 .	Setting up of Central Tool Room	3.00
5.	Up-gradation of power distribution infrastructure	4.50
6.	Development of common facilities centre including Information & Communication infrastructure	2.50
	TOTAL	80.60

 

Following is an excerpt from a PTI report in Hindu.

Kalinganagar: MESCO Steel Group plans to invest $2.8 billion (over Rs 1,000 crore) to expand its existing steel making capacity and set up a greenfield project that would together take its total capacity to 6.5 million tonnes per annum. MESCO, which owns Mideast Integrated Steel Ltd (MISL), would enhance its existing pig iron plant here into a 3.5 million tonnes steel plant with an investment of $1.2 billion, company’s Managing Director Rita Singh told reporters here.

Ms Singh said that the company would pump in $1.5-1.6 billion through joint venture route in setting up a greenfield steel plant here. The project is likely to be finalised within 2-3 months.

"We have already acquired 800 acres of land for this greenfield steel plant,” she said, adding that this project would be set up by MESCO Kalinga Steel. Both these projects would be completed by 2010-11, she said. The funds for these projects would be arranged through suppliers credit and cash equity.

… MESCO, which has become debt free recently, is also planning to ramp up its pig iron production from the current 4 lakh tonnes to 7 lakh tonnes by 2008-09. The products would be utilised by its steel plants, she said. – PTI

Update: Pioneer reports that ‘"The NHAI has agreed to provide funds immediately to take up the widening and strengthening the NH-215 from Panikoeli to Rajmunda. Rs 96 crore will be spent for this purpose. The tender process for the four laning would start soon."

The Orissa government has already involved itself in preparing the master plan for greater Bhubaneswar area. Now there is news regarding its intention to make master plans for 8 more areas. These areas are: Puri-Konark, Rourkela, Sambalpur, Berhampur, Kalinganagar, Paradeep, Jharsuguda, and Talcher-Angul. The govt. is missing a few other areas which it should take up soon. Those are: Baripada, Balasore, Dahamara, Rayagada-Therubali and Koraput-Jeypore. Following are excerpts from a report in Statesman on Orissa govt.’s recent thoughts on this.

In a bid to give major facelift to the upcoming urban areas of the state and for their integrated development, the government will prepare a master plan, within one and half years. The localities include Rourkela, Sambalpur, Berhampur, Puri-Konark, Talcher-Angul, Paradip, Kalinga Nagar and Jharsuguda. … Mr Patnaik underscored the need of adequately trained personnel to successfully handle the technical problems of under-ground sewerage and solid waste management,…. He also stressed on better sanitation, drinking water, housing and slum development. It may be mentioned here that while Rs 950 crore from the funds of JBIC has been sanctioned for sewerage of Cuttack; the capital city has been allotted Rs 499 crore for the same under Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission. Rs 88 crore has been sanctioned for drinking water in Cuttack, Berhampur and Sambalpur. Rs 3.65 crore has also been allotted for slum development in Bhubaneswar.

Telegraph also writes about this.

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

Tata Steel is likely to start the construction work of its greenfield steel project in Orissa within two months.

“We have got necessary clearances. Work to rehabilitate more than 1,200 families have been completed and now we are going to start the construction by the end of this year,” Tata Steel Kalinganagar project General Manager N A Ansari told PTI.

Tata Steel is seeking to increase the production of steel from 27 MT to 45 MT by 2015 and it will be achieved through greenfield projects, he said and pointed out, “Kalinganagar is the first such greenfield project undertaken by the company outside Jamshedpur.” Tata Steel is setting up a greenfield steel project in Kalinganagar, Orissa, to produce 6 MT of steel per annum and is investing Rs 18,000 crore in the project. The project is scheduled to be commissioned by mid-2009.

When asked whether there has been any delay in the project, he said, “We intend to go little faster, but there has been not much delay and these are usual things happens in any big project.

“We have already placed the order for more than Rs 5,800 crore worth of equipment and materials and all other things related to planning layout and estimates have already been done,” he said.

Speaking about the company’s investments in Orissa, he said, Orissa is one state where it has planned to invest more Rs 35,000 crore in various projects.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

Bhubaneswar-Cuttack and neighbouring towns will be developed into a greater urban complex of international standards catering to the needs of 42 lakh people by 2030.

The final perspective plan to this effect was presented to chief minister Naveen Patnaik here today by a team from IIT, Kharagpur. B.K. Sengupta, heading the team, said the comprehensive development plan for Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Choudwar, Khurda and Jatni would be ready by August 2008.

Subsequently, development plans would be prepared for places like Rourkela, Puri, Sambalpur, Berhampur, Talcher-Angul, Kalinga Nagar and Jharsuguda industrial complex, said state urban development minister K.V. Singhdeo.

The final perspective plan has envisaged comprehensive development of a greater urban complex comprising twin cities of Bhubaneswar-Cuttack and three adjoining towns spread over 721sqkm at an estimated cost of Rs 34,000 crore.

The required funds would be mobilised through public-private partnership, central government and state government and community contribution, said the urban development minister.

While 11 special zones have been earmarked for extensive development, four have been identified for intensive development and three places (Old Bhubaneswar, Choudwar and Old Cuttack) having heritage value have been set aside for restricted development. Seven sensitive pockets have also been identified.

A patch of farmland on the east of the Kuakhai flowing near Bhubaneswar has also been earmarked for agriculture. The final perspective plan has dwelt on various aspects like transport, traffic decongestion, upgrade of road system, slum development and drainage. Construction of overhead bridges and bypass and the upgrade of road systems have also been planned.

Drainage and sewerage development has also been planned in the twin cities.

A solid waste management plant has been proposed in Bhubaneswar. Bhubaneswar-Cuttack would be made slum-free. The shanties would be removed and the dwellers would be resettled in planned rehabilitation colonies to be built by private builders on the Dharavi model in Mumbai.

Following are excerpts from a report on this in sify.com.

Stemcor India, which is setting up a Rs 1,500 crore iron ore pelletisation project in Orissa, achieved financial closure, securing Rs 960 crore debt with SBI Capital Markets as the lead arranger.

Stemcor India, a subsidiary of Stemcor, the London-headquartered $5 billion steel trading major headed by Ralph Oppenheimer, will fund the remaining Rs 540 crore through equity in setting up a 4 million tonne pellet plant in Kalinganagar.

This will be connected by a 220-km slurry pipeline to Barbil, in Keonjhar district, the heart of private iron ore mining in Orissa, where a beneficiation unit would be located.

Senior Stemcor India officials said that with the financial closure, the first tonne of pellets would be out in 2009.

Several steel companies, already in Kalinganagar or implementing projects, have submitted letters of intent to source raw materials from Stemcor.

The demand is such that the order book for at least 75 per cent of the projected capacity has already been secured.

The company plans to set aside 25 per cent of output to be placed in the spot market to benefit from rising prices of pellets.

Officials said that while the prices of pellets would be on a negotiated basis with customers, lump ore price charged by NMDC Ltd, the state-run mining major, would serve as a benchmark price for the domestic market.

Kalinganagar is the destination for many steel companies like Tata Steel, Visa Steel, Bhushan Steel, Jindal Stainless, Murugappa group and Maharashtra Seamless.

Many of these companies, which do not have mining linkages, are obvious customers of Stemcor pellets.

… In the domestic market, smaller non-integrated steel plants, which typically have blast furnaces but no iron ore plant or sinter plants and do not have resources to invest in pelletisation, would source raw materials from Stemcor.

Also, metallurgically, a combination of lumps and pellets fed into blast furnaces can increase steel production substantially. The Orissa beneficiation and pelletisation project is Stemcor’s second plant after a 6 million tonne plant in Tasmania.

In 2000, Stemcor had entered into a joint venture with Essar for a pelletisation plant in Vishakapatanam but later sold a 51 per cent stake to Essar.

Following are excerpts from a New Indian Express report on this.

Tata’s budget hotel chain Ginger is expected to open doors to foodies in Paradip and Konark by the end of 2008.

Chief executive officer of Roots Corporation, Prabhat Pani said, they have already acquired one acre of land each in both these towns and would start construction in the next two months. Plans are also afoot to come up with a Ginger hotel in industrial towns like Jharsuguda, Angul and Kalinga Nagar in the next couple of years.

Roots Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Group and manages the Ginger chain of hotels. The company entered into the State in September last year with the launch of Ginger in the city.

Ranchi express reports that TATA M.D. B. MuthuRaman claims that Orissa is the ideal destination of investment growth among mineral rich states. Excerpts:

” Pleased with the progress of the company’s Kalinganagar (Orissa) project- especially with the approach of the Navin Patnayak government towards industrial development- Tata Steel Managing Director (MD) B.Muthuraman on Wednesday declared the mine-rich State as an ideal destination for investment growth.

“Of the three states- Jharkhand, Orissa and Chattisgarh- where we have announced Geenfield projects, Orissa a doing very well in terms of industrial development. I see the State develop immensely in the next few years,” Muthuraman said at an informal gathering at Beldih Club here.

Tata Steel is setting up a 6-MT Greenfield project in Orissa, besides Korean Steel Giant Psoco and Arcelor-Mittal have also signed MoUs with Patnaik government for setting up a 12-MT Greenfield project each. Among the three, the Tata Steel project may complete early as the company has made much headway in its mission in the last few months.”

” Pleased with the progress of the company’s Kalinganagar (Orissa) project- especially with the approach of the Navin Patnayak government towards industrial development- Tata Steel Managing Director (MD) B.Muthuraman on Wednesday declared the mine-rich State as an ideal destination for investment growth.

“Of the three states- Jharkhand, Orissa and Chattisgarh- where we have announced Geenfield projects, Orissa a doing very well in terms of industrial development. I see the State develop immensely in the next few years,” Muthuraman said at an informal gathering at Beldih Club here.

Tata Steel is setting up a 6-MT Greenfield project in Orissa, besides Korean Steel Giant Psoco and Arcelor-Mittal have also signed MoUs with Patnaik government for setting up a 12-MT Greenfield project each. Among the three, the Tata Steel project may complete early as the company has made much headway in its mission in the last few months.” This is in contrast to TATA local head B.D. Panda’s opinion a few days back , that Orissa is notthe frontline state for investment and Bengal is a preferable option.

This could also be construed a favourable response after the NDTV report talking about TATAs sitting on most high quality iron ore in Orissa.

Also, since the news item was in Jharkhand we should look at this news from a competitive perspective.

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.