___________

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) …

Following are excerpts from a sify.com report.

State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is setting up an oil refinery-cum-petrochemical complex at Paradip in Orissa, with an installed capacity of 15 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) at an estimated cost of Rs 25,646 crore.

”The project is expected to be completed by October 2011,” Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

He said the land acquisition was carried out by Orissa Government by consent agreement under section 11(2) of the Land Acquisition Act, based on the compensation package for private land fixed by Orissa Government in October, 1999.

IOC has already acquired 3,347 acres of land for Paradip Refinery Project.

The progress made on the various phases of the project includes the construction of bridges over Santra Creek, approach road including railway over-bridge for the refinery connecting NH-5A to refinery site have been completed.

Tecnological selection for all major units has been completed.

Residential accommodation for construction phase, CISF colony, coastal approach road and green belt development are under various stages of construction.

Project Management Consultant (PMC) has been selected for Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) phase of the project on December 1, 2006.

Patel said the environmental clearance for the project has been received on July 6, 2007.

He added an amount of Rs 2281.87 crore has been sanctioned for Paradip Refinery project for carrying out pre-project activities, out of which, Rs 778.32 crore has been spent as on July 31, this year.

Following up on the report in our previous entry, another political party, albeit with a small presence in Orissa, has come out in support of POSCO. Following is an excerpt from Pioneer.

The Samajwadi Party has lent its support to the pro-Posco villagers in their bid to cooperate with the officials for land acquisition for the company’s steel project. The party’s State president Baisnab Charan Parida, in a statement, said adequate compensation to the evacuees and their proper rehabilitation, training to the local people for employment and a thorough discussion with the supporters and opponents of Posco on development of education, health and communication facilities in the peripheral area by the company official as well as the State Government should be taken up at the earliest.

In an era of globalisation, if a country hesitates to open up its economy and decry establishment of industries by multinationals, it would remain backward, he added.

POSCO has also come up with some novel opportunities for the displaced people. Following are excerpts from a Business Standard report.

Korean major considers offering locals an export market in addition to compensation.

Korean steel giant Posco is taking a novel route to persuade land-owners to sell their land in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district where its Rs 52,000 crore, 12 million tonne steel plant is to be located.

Apart from monetary compensation for the land, Posco is offering the 140-odd fishermen families that will be displaced by India’s largest greenfield steel plant an assured market for dried fish and mango pickle in South Korea.

The company, which has been facing stiff resistance from locals who will lose land to the project, proposes to train fishermen in the area to produce the dried fish coveted by Koreans, according to a Posco India spokesman.

“Around 160 families in the periphery have shown interest and will be included in the programme,” he said. He said some 160 families on the periphery of the project had accepted the proposal.

A similar programme is being planned for betel vine cultivators. “They have shown interest in fruit, especially mangoes. We will get pickle manufacturers to collaborate with them and export these products to South Korea,” he added.

A socio economic survey, which is still being conducted, indicates that there are around 50 betel vine owners and 1,000 cultivators for 1,200 betel vines. “Not just the owners, the cultivators will also be included in the programme,” he said.

The plan has been suggested as a solution to the vexed problem of compensating land-losers by offering them sustainable livelihood. At the same time, it will meet a growing demand for dried fish and pickle in Korea. According to reports, Korea’s imports are expected to exceed exports due to depletion of fish resources. Its pickle demand is primarily met by China.

…“The products developed by the fishermen and betel vine cultivators will be exported to Korea through Posco’s captive port. After meeting the demand in the Korean market, they can be exported to South East Asia,” the spokesman said.

Posco India is currently in the last leg of its land-acquisition programme. Of the required land of 4,004 acres, the Orissa government is to provide 3,566 acres (of which it is yet to get possession). The company will have to buy the remaining 438 acres of land directly from land-owners.

The rehabilitation & periphery development advisory committee (RPDAC) is expected to meet shortly to decide on the compensation package. The committee comprises representatives from the government, the company and the local people.

The private land covers three gram panchayats — Gada Kujanga, Muagaon and Dhinkia, the latter being the largest tract covering 200 acres and has been the most aggressive in leading an agitation against Posco’s steel plant.

However, the Posco spokesman said, things have improved and the survey indicated that around 90 per cent of the people wanted to shift to other means of livelihood.

Following is a report from Samaja on this. This is what more legislators of the area should be doing, but without fighting among themselves.

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 are excerpts from a Telegraph report.

The Indian company, which became the sixth largest steel maker after buying Corus of the UK in January, plans to start construction work on its proposed 6-million-tonne integrated steel plant at Kalinganagar in November. …

Problems over land acquisition and mining leases have slowed progress on the Tata and Posco projects. Mittal’s Jharkhand project is facing the same predicament.

Tata Steel managing director B. Muthuraman, who met chief minister Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneswar on Thursday evening, said the company had sought mining leases for iron ore and expected to get them soon. Corus chief executive officer Philippe Varin accompanied Muthuraman.

The challenge before Tata Steel is now to relocate the families living on the land where the plant will come up. So far 620 of 1,200 families have been shifted. Tata Steel will start construction once another 200 families are relocated.

Varin said Corus and Tata Steel would be working together to set up the Kalinganagar plant and the best technology would be used. The first phase would call for Rs 6,000-crore investment, while the total project would cost Rs 15,000 crore.

The company was allocated 2,000 acres for the plant at Kalinganagar. The Orissa government is to recommend Tata Steel’s case for a mining lease after 25 per cent of the order for the plant and machinery is placed. Sources said the company had started placing orders worth Rs 4,500 crore for a blast furnace, sinter plant and coke oven unit.

The company wants iron ore mining leases at Mankadanacha and Baliapal to be restored. They were scrapped after the company failed to set up a steel plant in Gopalpur in the nineties.

State steel and mines secretary U. P. Singh said the government would consider Tata Steel’s application for mining lease according to procedures. …

The Orissa plant is a building block for Tata Steel’s integration with Corus. It will make primary steel here which will be sent to Corus’s west European finishing mills.

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.

Following is from a PIB release.

A project titled ‘Integrated Sewerage Project’ has been approved for Bhubaneshwar under Sewerage sector by Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee in its meeting held on 22.2.07 at an approved cost of Rs.49891.35 lakh. Central share committed for this project is Rs.39913.08 lakh (being 80%). Out of this, a sum of Rs.5158.40 lakh has been released towards first instalment on 24.04.07. The implementation period of this project is 48 months.

A project titled ‘Conservation of the Heritage Tank of Bindusagar’ has also been approved for Bhubaneshwar under ‘Urban Renewal Sector’ by Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee in its meeting held on 9.02.07 at an approved cost of Rs.601.31 lakh. Central share committed for this project is Rs.481.04 lakh (being 80%). Out of this, a sum of Rs.120.26 lakh has been released towards first instalment on 7.3.07. The implementation period of this project of this project is 24 months.

These are not entirely centrally funded projects and only 80 percent of the approved cost is provided as Additional Central Assistance as central share.

This information was given by Shri Ajay Maken, Minister of State in the Ministry of Urban Development in the Rajya Sabha today in a written reply to a question by Shri B.J.Panda and Ms. Pramila Bohidar.

(1) ECOR GM Shri Surendra Singh Khurana in his Independence Day address (available at http://eastcoastrailway.gov.in/custom/press_release/index.php) while talking about ECOR, said:

 “With only 4% of the track of Indian Railways, we cater for about 12% of total loading of Indian railway and about 7% of total earning of IR.”

(2) From http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/irfca/messages

For the 2003-2004 and 2004-05 the working expense as part of gross earnings of the ECOR zone is the second best at 66.64% and 61.75% respectively.

• The profit making zones in those years were
  • South east central (62.8% and 56.1%),
  • ECOR (66.64% and 61.75%),
  • North central (76.33% and 66.71%),
  • Central (80.29% and 82.48%),
  • South eastern (81.24% and 83.51%),
  • South Central (85.72% and 83.62%),
  • West Central (80.99% and 84.08%),
  • South Western (91.35% and 86.15%),
  • Western (93.21% and 90.85%),
  • Northern (91.08% and 92.89%) and
  • East Central (93.65% and 98.9%).

• The loss making zones were:
  • metro Kolkata (247% and 264.38%),
  • North Eastern (151.93% and 160.88%),
  • Northeast Frontier (147.98% and 159.45%),
  • Eastern (161.3% and 152.84%),
  • Southern (118.55% and 120.79%) and
  • North Western ( 106.26% and 104.98%).

(3) Based on (1) and (2) above ECOR probably makes about 10% of Indian Railways profit.

Why does not ECOR have the track length commensurate with the earnings it makes?

Why are no serious efforts being made to correct this; especially with many planned lines being given only minimal annual budgets which in many cases are less than the annual inflation.

In terms of rail density: the average rail density (2004-05) for India is 19.13; the rail density is highest in Delhi (138.2) followed by West Bengal (43.4), Punjab (41.6), Haryana (36.1), Bihar (35.9), Uttar Pradesh (35.8), etc. while Chhatisgarh (8.6) and Orissa (14.6) are among the states with low rail densities.

(6) The data from (1-3) and (5) show that while Indian Railways is making a lot of revenue and profit from ECOR (big part of which is in Orissa) and also SER (part of which is in Orissa), both ECOR and Orissa have been grossly neglected. This is true about the past; what about the future?

Mr V. N. Mathur, Member (Traffic) of the Railway Board is reported to have said:

“We’ve submitted to the Planning Commission a Rs 251,000-crore proposal for implementation by the end of the Eleventh Plan. We’ve indicated mobilisation of Rs 90,000 crore from within and 29 per cent of the projected estimate by way of market borrowing. For the balance, we may have to approach the government for support. But then nothing has yet been finalised.”

 (8) Many expensive and highflying plans by Indian Railways for the 11^th plan, but most bypass Orissa and ECOR.

(8A) Freight Corridor: Various news reports suggest that the 11^th plan (next 5-7 years) will take up the western and eastern corridors.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/9030.html

Western Corridor: 1,483-km Delhi-Mumbai route

http://www.hindu.com/2006/09/17/stories/2006091708640400.htm reports that the “Chennai-Kolkata and Chennai-Mumbai corridors will be included in the second phase of the Dedicated Freight Corridor Project.” 

(8B) High Speed Corridors:

“Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar, Mumbai-Baroda-Ahmedabad, Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore and Howrah-Asansol-Patna — were announced in the current rail budget.”

(8C) Metro Rails and rapid transit systems: From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_in_India#Metro   and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalore_Metro

The following are the existing or under construction/expansion metro rail projects.

• Delhi Metro
• Hyderabad Metro
• Kolkata Metro
• Kolkata Suburban Railway
• Lucknow MEMU 
• Chennai Metro
• Mumbai Suburban Railway
• Bangalore Metro
• Mumbai Metro •
• Thane Metro
• In planning:
  • Ahmedabad Metro
  • Kochi Metro
  • Goa
  • Pune

(9) In essence revenue and profit generated in ECOR is being ploughed into other parts of India, which by itself is not wrong as Orissa is a part of India, but lets analyze who are the losers: the adivasi and backward areas of Orissa (and hence of India) who are backward partly because lack of proper connectivity, and this neglect continues to keep them backward and prevents them from catching up.

No, here are the data and following it is what planning commission teams have themselves said.

(10) The tribal population percentage of the KBK districts are as follows:
Malkangiri 58.36% (+19.96% SC), Rayagada 56.04% (+14.28% SC), Nabarangpur 55.27% (+15.09% SC), Koraput 50.67% (+13.41% SC), Nuapada 35.95% (+13.09% SC), Kalahandi 28.88% (+17.01% SC), Sonepur 22.11% (+9.5% SC), Balangir 22.06% (+15.39% SC). Two adjacent districts also have high tribal population. They are Kandhamala 51.51% (+18.21% SC) and Gajapati 47.88% (+8.77% SC).  Tirbal percentage of Mayurbhanj is 57.87% and Sundergarh is 50.74%.

(11) The literacy rates in the KBK districts are abysmally low. Malkangiri 31.26%, Nabarangpur 34.26%, Rayagada 35.61%, Koraput 36.2%, Nuapada 42.29%, Kalahandi 46.2%, Balangir 54.93%, Sonepur 64.07%. Two adjacent districts also have low literacy: Gajapati 41.73% and Kandhamala 52.95%. The state average is 63.1%.

(12) Population below the poverty line in southern Orissa (of which KBK is a part) is reported to be 89.17% of the people according to the 1999-2000 NSS data and 72% of the families according to the 1997 census.

(13) From http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article174.html

Table 1 provides State level data on poverty ratios during 2004-05. The lowest poverty ratio was 5.4 per cent for Jammu and Kashmir and highest poverty ratio was for Orissa (46.4 per cent). States with poverty ratio of less than 15 per cent were Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh. As against them, States with poverty ratio above 30 per cent were Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Orissa.

Five States, namely, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa accounted for 166 million poor (about 55 per cent of the total poor estimated at 302 million). This shows the high concentration of poor in these five States.

(14) Planning Commission: The Planning Commission in its report comparing the development status of economic infrastructure of Orissa, especially the KBK region, vis-à-vis the country says:

"Railways have always played an important role in economic development and rapid social transformation in all parts of the globe. It is one of the key economic infrastructures. However, it is most unfortunate that in a poor and backward state like Orissa, development of rail networks has received much less attention of the Central Government in the post-independence period. There are as many as seven districts like Boudh, Kandhamal, Deogarh, Nayagarh, Kendrapara, Malkangiri and Nabarangpur out of the 30 districts of the state, which do not have any railway line passing through them. In the year 1998-99, the density of railway route length per 1000 sq. km of area in Orissa was only 15.03 km as against 42.66 km in West Bengal and 19.11 km. at all-India level”.

 (15) What we are asking with respect to KBK and adivasi areas of Orissa?

We are asking the current PM and the current planning commission to pay attention to what the planning commission report says in (15) and the data in (11)-(14).

In particular, we would like the following lines to be completed during the 11^th plan.

1)     Khurda – Balangir (This brings Railways to districts of Boudha, Sonepur and Nayagarh and bring Balangir – a part of KBK- closer to the state capital. This line of 290 km, initially budgeted at 700 crores, has all the necessary studies done, and its survey was complete before May 2004. It should be targeted to be completed within the next 2-3 years.)

2)     Gunupur-Theruvali (The Orissa govt. is ready to use PPP for this. This should also be done in 2-3 years together with the broad gauge conversion of Naupada-Gunupur line)

Lanjigarh Rd – Bhawanipatna – Junagarh – Nabarangpur- Jeypore – Malkangiri – Bhadrachalam Rd in Andhra Pradesh. (The first phase of this Lanjigarh Rd – Junagarh is 56 km with an estimated cost of 120 crores. 15% of it was completed before May 2004. This should be completed immediately within 1-2 years. This line lies completely within the KBK districts and when finished will bring Railways to the districts of Nabarangpur and Malkangiri. Moreover, the Malkangiri-Bhadrachalam Rd part could go through a bit of Chhatisgrah. This line will create a shorter and alternative Ranchi-Hyderabad route and bring connectivity to an area that is currently havited by many extremist groups. Not much has been done beyond Junagarh, so this must be immediately approved and work started so that the line gets completed by the end of the 11^th plan.)

Talcher – Bimlagarh (This is 154 km long and was estimated at Rs 727 crore. This will bring the tribal district of Sundergarh much closer to Orissa, connect a dangling line, and will bring passenger rail to big parts of Sundergarh. This should be completed in 3-4 years.)

(These lines connect dangling lines and will bring passenger rail to big parts of the tribal district of Mayurbhanj. Not much has been done, so this must be immediately approved and work started so that the line gets completed by the end of the 11^th plan.)

Badampahar-Keonjhar (This line also  connecst dangling lines and will bring passenger rail to big parts of the tribal district of Mayurbhanj. Not much has been done, so this must be immediately approved and work started so that the line gets completed by the end of the 11^th plan.)

1. Parlakhemundi, the district headquarter of Gajapati (part of KBK+) will be on Broad gauge rail and will be 305 kms from Bhubaneswar (the state capital).
2. Sonepur, the district HQ of Sonepur district will be on connected by rail and will be 259 kms from Bhubaneswar (the state capital).
3. Boudh, the district HQ of Boudha district will be connected by Rail and will be 217 kms from Bhubaneswar (the state capital).
4. Nayagarha, the district HQ of Nayagarha district will be connected by Rail and will be 84 kms from Bhubaneswar (the state capital).
5. Bhawanipatna, the district HQ of Kalahandi district (part of KBK) will be connected by Rail and will be 450 kms from Bhubaneswar via Balangir and 504 kms from Bhubaneswar (the state capital) via Gunupur.
6. Malkangiri, the district HQ of Malkangiri district (part of KBK) will  be connected by Rail.
7. Nabrangpur, the district HQ of Nabrangpur district (part of KBK) will be connected by Rail.
8. Balangir, the district HQ of Balangir district will now be 309 kms from Bhubaneswar instead of the earlier 397 kms.
9. Nawapara Rd, near the district HQ of Nawapara district will now be 459 kms from Bhubaneswar instead of the earlier 547 kms.
10. Rayagada, the district HQ of Rayagada district will now be 419 kms from Bhubaneswar instead of the earlier 502 kms.
11. Koraput, the district HQ of Koraput district will now be 573 kms from Bhubaneswar instead of the earlier 676 kms.
12. Titlagarh, a major junction will now be 373 kms from Bhubaneswar instead of the earlier 461 kms.
13. There will be an alternate shorter path from Ranchi to Hyderabad via Titlagarh-Bhawanipatna-Nabrangpur-Jeypore-Malkangiri-Bhadrachalam Rd

(17) Is the Indian railway under the UPA government neglecting Orissa than the previous government?

(18) In the 2004 railway budget given at http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=869 (items 35,37) the then Railway Minister Nitish Kumar had proposed the Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana which aimed to complete lines like Khurda-Balangir within the next 5 years. This has been completely sidelined by the UPA government. This is what he said.

(18 A) Following is the exact wording, in items 35 and 37 of the 2004 Railway budget.

    * 35. Railways have a large shelf of over 230 projects worth about Rs. 43,000 cr, for construction of New Lines, Gauge Conversion, Doubling, Electrification and Metropolitan Transport Projects. Even with the enhanced budgetary support, non-budgetary initiatives under National Rail Vikas Yojana and other cost sharing mechanisms apart from Defence funding of some projects of strategic importance, there will still be projects valuing Rs. 20,000 cr which would remain unfinished even after the next five years. A large number of these have been sanctioned on socio economic considerations with the intention of connecting remote and backward areas with the rail network. However their progress is very slow on account of inadequate funding, which causes dissatisfaction. Connecting these areas with the rail network will facilitate the economic and social development of these areas and will provide major employment opportunities during construction and thereafter. Keeping these factors in mind, it has been decided to speed up the execution and completion of these projects also in the next five years. I am happy to inform the House that this would be done through an ambitious ‘Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana’, with an additional outlay of Rs. 20,000 crore.
    *

    * 37. This decision to accelerate the completion of all projects in five years is expected, on a broad estimate, to provide yearly employment to about 3 lakh persons during the construction period. Once opened for traffic, these lines would also require about 18000 persons per year for normal maintenance and operations, on incremental basis. Apart from this, it is expected that there will be scope for indirect employment of nearly 55000 persons per year. The ‘Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana’ will go a long way in changing the economic and social scenario of the remote and backward regions of the country and bringing the people of these areas into the mainstream. Further, the demand for steel, cement, rolling stock, fittings, components, plant and machinery will also be generated, boosting the economic growth of the entire country.

(18 B) World Bank:

http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/240060/India%20%20financing%20infrastructure%20-%20addressing%20constraints%20and%20challenges.pdf
June 2006 report (page 70 above Table A8)

The second project envisaged by the railways was announced in the interim Budget of 2004- 05 and is called Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana (RARSY). This involves executing and completing hitherto sanctioned projects related to connecting remote and backward areas with the rail network till 2010. The total investments in these projects is valued at Rs.200 billion. Presumably this is to be entirely funded by budget
support.

(18 C)   http://164.100.24.208/ls/CommitteeR/Railways/16th-Report.pdf
Railway Standing Committee Report 2005-06

Page 19:

3.11 In response to the concern of the Committee as to why the completion targets of the projects are not being fixed, the Chairman, Railway Board stated as under:-

"most of these projects will not be completed in the next few years. In fact, the projects where target has not been given is because normally we give targets for projects which are going to be over in the next two to three years.  But where it is going to be a distant period and where we do not know as to how much funds would be allocated for these projects, we do not give targets for those projects. So, wherever targets are given these are the projects which will take more than two to three years to get completed depending on how much funds are given. On our part, we have tried to revive the CapitalFund to see that we can put in more money.

3.12 In the absence of adequate internal generation of revenues by the Railways,
the following projects has been declared by the Government as the national Projects in the National interest. The funding for these projects are ensured by the Central Exchequer in the form of additional Budgetary Support to the Railways.

(18 D) Summing up this point:

In summary, based on earlier planning commission report as excerpted in (14) the 2004 Rail budget had the scheme RARSY which would have completed KBK connectivity lines like Khurda-Blangir. But the UPA government has buried that plan and has talked about burdening the state government for these lines, which since they can not afford, basically means abandoning these lines. This approach needs to be reversed and while India and Indian Railway marches ahead it must not forget the backward and adivasi areas of India and Orissa; especially when it makes money from transporting freight (minerals) from these areas.

(19.5) While the above are finished during the 11^th plan, we will patiently wait for the 12^th plan

• for the 2^nd phase of freight corridor involving Howrah-Chennai that will pass through Orissa;
• for high speed rail between Howrah-Bhubaneswar-Visakhapatnam, Visakhapatnam-Hyderabad, and Visakhapatnam-Chennai;
• for a metro rail for greater Bhubaneswar; and
• additional lines such as Jaleshwar-Digha, Berhampur-Phulbani, Bargarh-Nawapara Road and Talcher-Berhampur.

Following are excerpts from a report in english.chosun.com.

… After a rough start, POSCO is expected to finally have a site allocated for a planned steel mill in India, while an investment in a new Vietnam steel mill is likely to move ahead in October.

According to POSCO on Wednesday, the Indian government recently made it known that they plan to determine whether to give environmental clearance for the 4,004 acre site in Paradip in the province of Orissa.

Some 3,566 acres or 89.1 percent of the site of the planned one-stop steel system belongs to the government. Of that, 3,097 acres (86.9 percent) is forest land. For now, POSCO has only secured 193 acres (4.8 percent).

A POSCO official said, "The final decision has not yet been made, but we heard that the site might be released from the forest zone soon. The state-owned land accounts for nearly 90 percent of our site. In other words, if the area is released from the forest zone, the biggest obstacle to our effort to secure the site disappears."

Following is from a PIB.

The Minister of State for Coal Dr. Dasari Narayana Rao informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today that the exploration activity has established additional resources during Xth Plan period in several coalfields including Orissa and West Bengal. Giving details, he said during the period January, 2006 to March, 2007, 4080 million tonnes of new coal resources have been estimated in the country. As a result the inventory of Geological Resources of Coal in India, prepared by Geological Survey of India (GSI) has increased by 4080 mt as indicated below:

Dr. Rao further informed that out of the total addition of coal resources mentioned above 520 million tonnes have been estimated in the state of West Bengal and 1234 million tonnes in the state of Orissa.

The state-wise and coalfield-wise details of estimation of additional coal resources in blocks where exploration has been concluded during the period from January, 2006 to March, 2007 are given as under:-

The Minister added that based on the potential of the blocks revealed from regional exploration data the detailed exploration is under process in different blocks/areas.

Following is from a PIB.

The Ministry of Railways has decided to constitute a Core Group for monitoring of Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects related to development of World Class Railway Stations including New Delhi Railway Station. The Committee will set up clear timeframe for each of the 22 railway stations, which will be upgraded to world-class stations. The Group will take stock of the progress and also devise a format for compiling a monthly progress report. The move will give further flip to the modernization activities aimed at improving passenger amenities.

The Group will review and strengthen other related departments of Railway Board to enable them to deliver results as per the targets laid down for PPP projects. The Group will also formulate a list of preparatory activities to be completed by the Zonal Railways before any station is taken up for developing as a world class and this would include the dedicated organizational set-up that needs to be created with in the Zonal Railways for this purpose.

Earlier, in a move to make Indian Railways world’s number one Railway network, the Committee on Infrastructure approved the proposal for completing the first phase of modernization of the New Delhi railway station into a world-class station through Public Private Partnership before the Commonwealth Games, 2010. In addition to New Delhi, the other stations would be developed as world class stations are: Agra, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Anand Vihar, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Bijwasan, Chandigarh, Chennai, Mumbai CST, Howrah, Jaipur, Lucknow, Mathura, Patna, Pune, Secunderabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Varanasi and Gaya.

The Core Group will consist of high-ranking officials of Railway Board. These are; Member (Engineering), Additional Member (Commercial), Adviser (Infrastructure) and Adviser (Finance). Adviser (Land and Amenities) will function as the Convener of the Committee.

Following are excerpts from a Business Standard report.

Berhampur Development Authority (BDA) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Kolkata based real estate company, Forum Private Limited, for construction of a Rs 95.78 crore integrated commercial-cum-residential complex here.

The complex, which will come up under the banner of Gajapati Plaza on a 5 acre plot, will be built on the model of Public Private Partnership (PPP).

Facilities like shopping malls, hotel and entertainment arcade will be provided in the complex, said Sarat Ranjan Patnaik, chairman of BDA.

The executive committee of BDA approved the project on Wednesday and decided to send the proposal to the government for final approval.

According to the proposal, BDA will provide the land to the real estate company on 75 years lease for construction of the complex and will manage it after completion.

… Forum was selected to construct Gajapati Plaza through competitive bidding. BDA had floated tender inviting applications from the companies for construction of the proposed project. While 14 applications were received, only four were selected for pre-qualification bid. Of them only two were in the final bid and Forum was awarded the tender.

Forum, promoted by the Sarafs of Kolkata, had earlier constructed the Forum Mart in Bhubaneswar.

Sarafs were working on a project to set up a titanium dioxide plant near Chhatrapur in Ganjam district.

“The face of the Berhampur will change when the Gajapati Plaza constructed at the Corporation Road, on the side of National Highway 217 in the heart of the city comes up”, he said.

BDA has approved a proposal for construction of Vivek Vihar Phase II, residential housing project and a bypass from Gokarneswar temple to All India Radio office in Berhampur.

According to Patnaik, the housing project would cost about Rs 7.50 crore and would come up over 29 acres at Ambapua at the outskirt of the city. About 100 houses of different categories would be constructed.

The price of the houses would range between Rs 2.81 lakh and Rs 16.34 lakh depending on type.

“We decided to construct the housing project from our own fund”, he said.

BDA has decided to construct 600m by-pass from Gokarneswar temple to AIR office at a cost of Rs 1.69 crore to solve the acute traffic problem in Gate Bazar area here.

(Thanks to Deba Nayak for the pointer to this.)

The following article from Samaja explains why people in Orissa (and India) do not believe companies’ promises. If what the article says is true it is shameful on the part of Tatas to behave that way.

Following are some excerpts from a PTI report in Economic Times.

Setting at rest speculation on the fate of its Rs 52,000 crore steel project, South Korean giant Posco has decided to begin construction work on the 12 million tonne plant in Orissa by October.

“We will begin construction work of our 12 MT project in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district by October on whatever land we have acquired so far,” Posco India Chairman and Managing Director Soung Sik Cho said. …

“We believe things have undergone a sea-change during the last few months. People are clearly convinced that they will benefit from the project. Now they have a better understanding of the entire situation,” he reasoned.

Posco was also enthused after the union government gave environmental approval to the project. Moreover, the Naveen Patnaik government in Orissa has been asked by the Centre to take the mega investment process forward.

“Actually things are now looking much brighter. We have also received the official nod for our captive port project at Jatadhari, which has also encouraged us,” Cho pointed out.

The Korean steel giant has decided to begin construction work initially on 400 acres of non-forest land, and then on the revenue land to be given to it by the Orissa government.

“Now the only issue remains to be resolved is granting captive iron ore mines to us. But here also I believe things are moving in the right direction,” Cho said.

A business standard article on monsoon tourism talks about Goa, Kerala and Orissa. Following is what it says about Orissa.

The monsoon at one of the most underestimated destinations in India, Orissa, is a surprise. The destination is wonderful, but unfortunately it’s just not sold very well yet. You can get a three night, four day Bhubaneswar and Puri package from Thomas Cook for Rs 12,950 onwards per couple, not including the airfare.

The trip includes visits to Khandagiri, Dhaulagiri and Udaygiri in Bhubaneswar as well as many temples, including the world-famous Lingaraj and the Mukteshwar temples. You would also be taken to Kalijai island, about three hours from Bhubaneswar, and then, on the way to Puri, you can check out the applique work at Pipli village.

Puri is famous for the Jagannath Puri temple, with its fabulous annual procession. Close to Puri is an interesting artisans’ village called Raghurajpur. The village is famous for Patta Chitra work (paintings on palm leaves). In Orissa you get an opportunity to view dolphins in the Chilka Lake. After you are through with the Sun Temple at Konark, don’t forget to pick a few Sambhalpuri sarees.