___________

Daily Pioneer reporter Kahnu Nanda reports that situation is turning in favour of POSCO in the Kujang Block. The Article is reproduced below:

“Days after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik asserted that the mega greenfield steel plant by South Korean steel major Posco will be established at Kujang and that construction work would start from April 1, 2008, Posco has reiterated its commitment to the project.

An overwhelming section of people living in the proposed project site areas, including representatives of several political parties, social activists and local senior citizens, are moving fast to garner support for the project’s implementation.

Reports indicate that several meetings and campaigning has been held in project site at village level in the past week in a bid to woo the locals in the project’s favour.

Different project sympathisers have been organising these pro-Posco meetings and Ersama MLA and former Minister Damodar Rout has proposed to organise a mass public meeting in Balitutha Hat on October 27 just at a stone’s throw distance from the project opponents’ road block over Balitutha Bridge since September 24.

Sources said that a pro- Posco meeting was organised under the leadership of former PS member Jiban Lal Behera and the meeting was attended by most of habitants and discussed the Posco issues at length.

The senior villagers, attending the meeting too opined setting up of the project and unanimously resolve requesting the Posco authorities to reopen its closed Kujang office immediately.

Meanwhile, Ranjan Das a social activist and native of Polang, an affected village for the project, arranged a meeting in village on Tuesday in a move to garner support for Posco.

The Chief Minister’s endeavours to have a dialogue with project opposition groups had described a salutary effort while the villagers emphasised that the Posco authorities need to directly interact with the affected people for land acquisitions, Askhya Das, a villager revealed.

The political atmosphere in the project sites of Gadakujang, Dhinkia, Nuagaon, Chatua, Balitutha and Bamadeipur villages saw a startling incident on Tuesday when one Dhruba Charana Muduli, a social activist had called an all party meeting in Gadakujanga to discuss the Posco stalemate.

The meeting was attended by most of the members of different political parties of the locality excluding Leftists.

In the meeting a decision was taken to form an all party co ordination committee taking members from different political parties to hold dialogue with the State Government, the district administration and the Posco authorities to sort out the project obstacles, informed a member of a major political party.

Meanwhile, sources said that a similar type of meeting had been organised in Govindpur village under the leadership of Nirvay Samantray and project sympathiser Tamil Pradhan had conducted a meting in his Nuagaon village on Wednesday.

However, reports said that most of Posco supported leaders at the proposed project site villages have been organising meetings and campaigning to bring a pro attitude since the Chief Minister and Posco agreed for the project inception last week.

Ersama legislator Damodar Rout ,who was keeping distance from Posco related issues earlier has started organising mass contact campaigning with a message against anti -Posco sentiments in project site villages.

However, Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) who is spearheading the anti-Posco movement since one year vowed to oppose the project tooth to nail and refused to act on the Chief Minister’s desire of a dialogue.

According to them the project would wipe out 11 villages and affect around 20,000 habitants therefore no industry should not be set up at the cost of agricultural lands that threatens to take away the livelihood of people.

Abhaya Sahoo, PPSS chairman slammed the State Government for being insensible towards the affected locals, and also threatened of not giving one inch of land for the Posco project. He blamed the local leaders for organising pro Posco meetings in their areas under the influence and getting financial supports from Posco.”

Following is an excerpt from a report in newkerala.com on this.

Indian Navy was planning to develop an air enclave at Bhubaneswar for its aircraft, Commodore MVS Kumar, Naval Officer in Charge of Orissa said here today.

The Commanding Officer of INS Chilika, while briefing the press on the Navy Week by INS Chilika, said the Navy had already approached the state government for five acre of land for the purpose and the Chief Minister had responded very positively.

In addition, a plan was also mooted to develop 20 acre of land lying at Paradeep to provide logistic support to naval ships, he said.

The Commanding Officer of INS Chilika said a week long sailing workshop-cum-Chilika Lake Mouth Sailing Expedition would be organised for youths from November 11 to 18 to promote adventure sports in the state.

The state department for Youth Affairs and Sports had selected 100 youths from all over the state to participate in the workshop.

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.

New Indian express reports that Orissa Stevedores Ltd (OSL) started the renovation of Gopalpur Minor Port and its expansion into an all weather port. Excerpts:

“This seasonal port work which was earlier managed by the State Government was entrusted to OSL last year to be developed into a full fledged, all weather port by OSL, on a build own operate share transfer (BOOST) basis for a concession period of 30 years.While the minor Gopalpur port was spread over 282.755 acres the planned all weather port will come up on 513.786 acres. As per the notification by the State Government the district administration has already initiated measures to hand over land to OSL besides leasing out some stone quarries.

As per the initial plans, the port would be developed in two phases at Rs 720 crore. The first phase of the project would involve upgradation and rehabilitation of the existing minor port at Rs 20 crore.

Phase II involves an investment of Rs 700 crore for the development of the port into an all-weather one. On completion of 30 years, the developed port will be handed over to the State Government. However, the private operator would also have to share its gross revenue with the State Government.”

Following is an excerpt from a Pioneer report on this.

The State Culture Department on Wednesday decided to construct a theatre hall and an auditorium here, said an official of the department. …

… Rabindra Mandap and Bhanja Kala Mandap are the two available platforms in the city to facilitate staging of dramas and theaters. …

Noteworthy that in 1988 theaters were being staged for five days in a week in the city and the revenue generated from it was shared between the Government and the theatre house. But, the trend came to a halt in 1992.

In order to revive the professional theatre houses like Utkal Rangamanch Trust, the State Government in1997 fixed the responsibility on Bhanja Kala Mandap.

Now, it has been possibly decided to construct a theatre hall in the premises of Guru Kelu Charan Mohapatra Odissi Research Centre. Once constructed, the hall would at a time accommodate 350 persons. It is proposed to be built on the architect fashion of Pruthwi theatre hall in Mumbai. The estimated cost of the proposed hall is Rs 3 crore.

Besides, an auditorium with the capacity of 1,000 seats would constructed at Sainik School and the estimated cost of the auditorium is Rs 12 crore. For this purpose four acres of land have been earmarked. It will be built in the line of Rabindra Mandap, said the officer.

The following is extracted from an ndtvprofit.com report.

• The state government, Posco agreed to April 1 deadline as the date was significant for both Orissa and the steel major. It is observed as ‘Utkal Divas’ and also the anniversary of Posco, Lee said.
• During the discussion, Patnaik pointed out that 512 acres of government land had already been sanctioned to Posco, while 3,000 acres of forest land was cleared by the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), official sources said.

  Posco required 4,004 acres near Paradip to set up its proposed 12 mtpa capacity steel mill which had been facing opposition from the local people. “Though land was ready for handover to Posco, this could not be done in the face of stiff opposition from the local people,” they said.

• Patnaik said the state government would complete hearing of all applications for Khandadhar mines in Sundargarh district by November, sources said.

  Orissa government had already recommended the name of the South Korean company for the Prospecting Licence (PL), they said.

• Patnaik urged Lee to immediately commence construction of transit accommodation for the displaced people and a training center for imparting technical education to local youths so that they could be provided with jobs in future.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Statesman.

The state forest department has embarked on a project to renovate a unique Victorian-structured marvel as a part of its eco-tourism package in the internationally acclaimed Bhitarkanika Ramsar wetland site.

The 141-year-old sprawling Hukitola building, which carries the proof of excellent British architectural skill with rainwater harvesting system, has finally drawn the attention of the government agencies after it was neglected for years.

“The gigantic structure on the Mahanadi deltaic region has been taken up for maintenance by the department. We are going to have a forest watch tower there. To promote tourism, we will have boats to carry people from the Paradip port town. The place nestled in the deltaic-shaped elevated landscape is blessed with rich mangrove forests. Its proximity to the shore would make way for tourism,” said the divisional forest Officer, Rajnagar Mangrove Forest Division, Mr Ajay Kumar Jena.

The department would start its operation within a week. Keeping in view this fact that Paradip is fast emerging as a bustling industrial hub, tourism would receive the much-needed boost.

“The tranquil environment in and around Hukitola are strikingly similar to that of the Bhitarkanika wetland. Thus a voyage to Hukitola would be a visual treat for the tourists. The British structure will be an added attraction,” Mr Jena said.
While ravages of time has threatened its existence, its conservation is necessary. “It’s a priceless treasure. We had taken up the proposal for its maintenance with the Union finance commission grants earmarked for maintenance of ancient monuments,” Mr Jena said.

The building has a total plinth area of more than 7,000 square feet.

Following is an excerpt on this from a report in Business Standard.

GAIL India, the country’s largest transporter and marketer of gas, will diversify from its core business to invest in a fertiliser and chemical plant at Talcher in Orissa. The gas utility will form a joint venture with government-owned Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF) to set up the Rs 2,400 crore plant which will have a capacity to produce 2,940 tonne per year of urea, GAIL, CMD, UD Choubey said.

An agreement between GAIL and RCF will be signed soon, Choubey said.

“The equity structure is yet to be worked out. RCF will carry out a feasibility study on the integrated fertiliser and chemical plant,” Choubey said.

The plant will be fed with 7 million cubic metres a day (mcmd) of gas produced through the surface coal gasification process for which Coal India (CIL) will supply around 5,000 tonne of coal.

“We are in constant touch with CIL. They have in-principle agreed to supply the coal,” Choubey said.

Explaining the rationale behind diversifying into fertilisers, Choubey said that the trigger for the move was that the company wanted to increase its presence in the gas business in east India. “We have always been supplying gas to fertiliser plants. This is just a move forward,” Choubey explained.

TCS has a software development center in Bhubaneswar. Following is an excerpt from a report in livemint regarding TCS’s plan to establish a training center in Bhubaneswar.

TCS has a training centre for science graduates at Chennai, where it plans to increase capacity to be able to train 3,000 at a time. Besides, it plans to open four more centres at Assam, Chandigarh, Gandhinagar and Bhubaneswar to have an additional capacity of up to 5,000 at an investment of Rs400 crore.

“Scaling up to 30,000 at 10 centres is not a problem for us,” said S. Ramadorai, chief executive officer and managing director, TCS.

TCS, which reported Rs5,640 crore in revenues in the September quarter, spends 2% of its revenue on employee training.

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 is an excerpt from a New Indian Express report on this.

Hotel Hindustan International Group announced its arrival in the city with HHI Bhubaneswar having 104 luxury rooms in four different categories, a spa, banquet, dedicated swimming pool and a lawn over a sprawling 11,000 sq ft.

The star hotel which promises to provide quality services is looking to tap the ever-growing business class travellers from across India and abroad. For a start, each room will have plasma TVs, Wi-Fi connectivity and toilets with four compartments besides other amenities.

The hotel, at Kharvela Nagar where once another such property stood, has seen an investment of Rs 50 crore and boasts of a total makeover.

It has a dedicated “kebab centre” called “Kebaabs Unlimited”, a 24-hour multi-cuisine restaurant “Flavours”, “The Lounge Bar” besides business centre facility. Underground, a party floor, will soon add to the charm. HHI Bhubaneswar is the group’s third unit …

Jaiswal said that the group was planning a beach resort at Puri and is in talks with the Orissa Government for this.

Following are excerpts from a report in the New Indian Express.

Bhubaneswar: … L V Prasad Eye Institute here on Wednesday opened three new specialised eye centres. They are ‘Centre for diabetic eye disease,’ ‘Centre for sight enhancement’ and ‘Eye trauma centre.’

… The ‘Centre for diabetic eye disease’ would play a critical role in attending to diabetic patients suffering from visual disability. It is estimated that about 5.7 million people in India alone suffer from ‘diabetic retinopathy.’

It is preventable and can be treated. All that a diabetic individual needs to do is consult a physician in such centre for annual retinal examination and early detection of diabetic retinopathy. Such a step would significantly reduce the risk of visual loss in diabetic individuals.

National Thermal Power Corporation has donated about Rs 2 crore for setting up the three centres. The ‘Centre for sight enhancement’, similarly, promises quality treatment for children suffering from low vision. Estimate suggests that about 2.70 lakh children in India suffer from this defect.

In fact, congenital conditions such as ‘hereditary macular degeneration,’ ‘congenital glaucoma’ and ‘congenital eye’ anomalies account for the majority of visual impairment seen in children.

With the opening of the ‘Eye trauma centre’, the hospital aims to provide a comprehensive one stop care to patients with eye injury. Over a period of time, the institute plans to extend this to a 24X7 service, as in most of the accident cases, one needs immediate treatment to salvage the vision.

On the occasion, L V Prasad Eye Institute director Dr T P Das said the institute is contemplating to set up a school for eye care professionals in the next five years.

The institute provides 25 percent of outpatient services and 40 percent surgeries free of cost.

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

Expanding its business portfolio, the Kolkata-based Saraf Group, promoters of Forum Mart shopping malls, has now decided to set up a titanium plant at Chhatrapur in Ganjam district.

The plant will be set up over 600 acres of land at an investment of Rs 2,000 crore in collaboration with the Russian Government. Production is likely to start by 2009- end.

This was disclosed by Saraf Group chairman S M Shroff while talking to mediapersons here on Tuesday. He said the project had received approval of the State Government and an MoU would be signed soon. The company had already acquired 200 acres.

He also announced setting up of two more shopping malls in the State, buoyed by the success of Forum Mart here. Both the malls – to come up in the Capital city and in Berhampur, would also have four-screen multiplex. The projects are likely to be completed by 2009-end.

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.

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.

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

A three member survey team of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) on Friday made a spot assessment of the Rourkela airstrip to find out the feasibility of re-introduction of air connectivity to the city.

Led by senior civil aviation consultant and former executive director of AAI D P Chakravorty the team comprised Air Traffic Controller (East) Timir Bandhopadhyay and AAI’s Chief of Communication R K Chandra.

They have reportedly expressed satisfaction over the existing infrastructure.

The team found the airstrip infrastructre here better than that at Ranchi and Jamshedpur. The team, however, felt the need for a passenger terminal besides further strengthening of the existing fire services.

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.

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.