___________

Following is excerpted from a report in Orissadiary.com.

The Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday informed the House  that  the Airports Authority of India has already agreed to develop Jharsuguda Airport to a full fledged one and for which the latter has also asked 815 acres of land free of cost.

… The Chief Minister  informed that the Authority considering the proposal of the State Government of developing Jharasuguda Airport to a full fledged Airport, has asked for additional land of 815 acres free of cost. However, a maximum of 734 acres of land is available near the Airport which includes 418 of Private land. So, the Authority has been requested to scale down their requirement of land through a reasonable estimate. They have also been asked to intimate a firm commitment to complete the expansion project of the Airport within a period of two years from the date of receipt of the additional land and a reply to this effect is awaited, he said.

Related postings on the topic:

• Campaign for international airport in Bhubaneswar and speeding up the airport in Jharsuguda.
• Jharsuguda airport to be developed by PPP?
• Future airport plans.
• 800 acres needed for Jharsuguda airport.
• Airstrips in Odisha.
• MOU to be signed for Jharsuguda airport.
• The complete coverage on the Jharsuguda airport progress.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

To reduce road traffic congestion, the state transport department has initiated steps to connect the twin city of Bhubaneswa and Cuttack by metro rail. The service would cover almost 150 km between the two cities touching 20 vital points.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has been asked to conduct a survey. Later the state government would undertake the construction work with technical assistance from DMRC. “The work is expected to be over by 2030. The construction work would start from 2020,” said transport secretary Satyabrata Sahu.

The service would be extended upto the expanded areas of Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and Cuttack Development Authority (CDA). “It means, people can travel from Jatni to Choudwar, about 55 km”, he said.

Considering the cost component, the state government has planned to lay separate over-road tracks for metro rails instead of underground ones.

Trains will sneak through major junctions, covering almost 150 km. Soon after the survey, the state government would make budgetary provisions for laying of tracks.

…  “It is expected that the population of the twin cities will cross 50 lakh by the end of 2030. Immediate steps need to be taken to shift traffic congestion. As a solution to the traffic congestion, we have planned to introduce metro rail”, said transport minister Sanjiv Sahu.

The graphics accompanying this article has a dead link. It has the list of the 20 key places the metro rail will touch. By enlarging I could read the following names: Jatni, Khurda, P—, Khandagiri, Kalinga studio square, CRP square, Power house square, Jayadev Vihar, Acharya Vihar, Vani Vihar, Rasulgarh,  Naharkanta, Pahala, Phulnakhara, Link Road, Badam Badi, Mangalabag, OMP, Manguli Square, and Chowduar.

The target date to start construction is 2020 and operation is 2030. That is too far in the future. Kochi, which is a similar sized metro area as Bhubaneswar-Cuttack is far ahead in the process. See http://kochimetrorail.blogspot.com/. (As per the World-Gazetteer greater Bhubaneswar has a population of 1.696 million while greater Kochi has a population of 1.564 million.)

Update: Following is excerpted from a report inTelegraph.

… Official sources said surveying the land for the project has already been completed. The legal and statutory requirements have been submitted to the appropriate authority for clearance.

… As per the proposal, the company would invest Rs 150 crore for land acquisition and connectivity, Rs 100 crore for energy academy, Rs 2,700 crore for power plant, Rs 1,000 crore for creating marine facilit. While Rs 400 crore would be invested for desalination plant and another Rs 500 crore would be towards township and office complex.

…Officials pointed out that oil and gas-based industries, which have shown interest in the hub are Alph Tech International Inc., Downstream Services, USA, Richemen Petroleum-Export Oriented Refinery, Dubai, SBM Offshore –FPSO Services, USA, ULO Systems LIC, Subsea Pipelines, Switerzerland and Dubai, Hyundai Offshore, South Korea.

The non-oil and gas-based industries which has evinced interest in the hub are Seacor Marine Inc, USA, Faros Investment Partners, UP, Wind Turbines and Blades, Aerostar, USA, Matrix Global LIC, USA and Virtue Group, USA.

Following is from an UNI report in newkerala.

The proposal was submitted to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik by Mr S K Chalamsethy, Director Sonepur Energy and Oil City Private Limited set up by the consortium, sources said today.

The company, official sources said, had proposed to set up an Energy Academy for the development of technical knowhow in the energy and oil sectors and create necessary infrastructure for port, power, desalination plant, fabrication and township.

While the Consortium would invest Rs 5,000 crore, other industrial houses would invest nearly Rs 10,000 crore. The projects, when completed, would provide direct employment to 20,000 people and indirect employment to one lakh.

The Energy Academy would impart training to engineer, geologist, geophysicist, drilling engineer, fabricators besides other technical persons in close association with the international oil companies.

The company, sources said, would invest Rs 100 crore on the academy which would encourage small business men in the Oil sector.

In the proposed Oil city, a port, a ship manufacturing unit, 1000 MW gas based power plant and 120 MLD Desalination Plant, besides a modern city for a population of 10,000, would be established. This apart, infrastructure for setting up of Petrochemical complex and Oil storage would be created in the city.

Official sources said the Southern Orissa, being located on the Krishna-Godabari and Mahanadi basin, has the potential for investment in the oil and gas sectors and Orissa would emerge as a major Hydrocarbon Hub in the entire South East Asia.

In a report in Orissadiary, the group is named as Greenco. I could find a website for Greenko which has a director named Anil Kumar Chalamalasetty. This financial express interview is with him. Greenko stock listing info is here.

Note that Sonepur in Ganjam is next to the Bahuda Muhana. See

• Map: Orissa ports (large map)
• Map: Orissa ports (small map)

In 2008 the Odisha government had proposed Bahuda Muhana as one of the sites in response to a GOI call for a PPP based shipyard. So the above mention plan for a shipyard fits in nicely; or it may mean good homework done by the group in making the overall proposal.

However, Odisha government needs to be careful about grandiose proposals from newcomers, as it may be a land grab plan in disguise.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

The Phase-I of the PCPIR project needs 48,268 acres (195.34 sq km) in all out of which 22,232 acres (89.97 sq km) would be devoted to processing facilities while the balance 26035 acres ( 105.37 sq km) is the area set aside for non-processing facilities. Phase-I of the project is scheduled to be taken up during 2010-2020.

The entire project which is set to be completed by 2030, needs 70,214 acres (284.15 sq km) of land which includes 30,397 acres (123.01 sq km) of processing area and 39.817 acres (161.14 sq km) of non-processing area.

Priyabrata Pattnaik, chairman and managing director of Idco said, “Idco has filed requisition for acquisition of 90 per cent of land needed for the first phase of the PCPIR project. Out of the processing area of 123.01 sq km, 41.95 sq km is under operational units and almost 42.68 sq km (10,546.22 acres) has been acquired or is under acquisition by Idco, balance area of 38.38 sq km needs to be acquired.”

He was speaking at an awareness session on ‘Regulatory Framework of Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) for Petroleum and Natural Gas Sector’, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Of the non-processing area of 161.14 sq km, 20.92 sq km (5169.33 acres) are village settlements which has been integrated in the non-processing area and existing township of 19.08 sq km ( 4714.66 acres) included in the non – processing area.

Idco has also filed for land acquisition of 7,342 acres (30 sq km) for common infrastructure, utilities and accommodating downstream chemical converters and industries.

Meanwhile, as a part of developing rail connectivity within the PCPIR hub, it has been decided to set up rail freight stations (RFS) along with additional rail sidings at a total cost of Rs 80 crore in Phase-I and Rs 120 crore in Phase-II.

In Phase I, the RFS will be along Cuttack-Paradeep line which further connects to Paradeep port and Chennai-Howrah trunk whereas in Phase II, the RFS will be along Paradeep-Haridaspur line joining Chennai-Howrah trunk. The PCPIR project at Paradip is awaiting the in-principle approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). After Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and West Bengal, Orissa would be the fourth state to receive the approval for this prestigious project.

Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) would be the anchor tenant of the project and it would set up a 15 million tonne per annum grassroot refinery cum petrochemical complex five km south of Paradip at a cost of Rs 29,777 crore. The refinery project is expected to be commissioned by March 2012 and stabilized by November 2012.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

Denizens working in various corporates and offices in the city have got used to the food from Gyanaranjan Behera’s small-time eatery situated in the premises of Ekamra Haat in the capital.

“We find the carriages at our mess when we return from class. It’s very convenient and easy on our pockets too,” said college-goer Sambit.

The eatery serves a number of local dishes and delivers meal everyday to corporate employees in the city within the stretch of Vani Vihar to Forest Park and Acharya Vihar.

“We have more than a hundred customers employed in banks and the corporate sector,” said Behera proprietor of Hotel Trupan.

… “It struck me that Bhubaneswar too is full of working people and even bachelors. So we decided to start the food delivery service here in 2004,” he added.

The service is almost always uninterrupted across twin cities, even on the days of severe weather. It is due to the uninterrupted supply chain service that has made it such a big hit.

“We provide our own carriages and collect theses from our customers in the evening,” said Behera.

With the number of private hostels and messes growing in the city, food is also delivered to students.

The eatery serves vegetarian preparations in which onion and garlic are not used.

It starts preparing the dishes from 10am and the meals get ready for supply by 12 at noon.

The delivery starts at 12.30pm and reaches the customers by 1.30pm.

The service is provided from Monday to Saturday and the preparations are altered every day, except for dal, rice and chapati. Salad is in the list of regular menu. When it comes to curry, the eatery provides two preparations everyday such as mixed-vegetable curry, fried-vegetables, cauliflower curry, paneer dishes and so on.

“We have employed three people for the delivery purpose. Each carries 30 to 40 carriages in one trip,” said Behera.

“We try to add more preparations in the menu to offer a variety of dishes. Our customers have been receiving our service for the past six years and the orders are increasing everyday,” he said.

The payment is collected on a daily basis and the charge just Rs 25 per meal.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

The Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) has proposed to establish a satellite city, the first of it kind in Orissa, on the outskirts of the capital city. The new city will be set up over 1200 acres of land encompassing four villages of Jagasara, Madanpur, Jagasarapatna and Kaimati of Jatni and Khurda municipalities, 25 km from Bhubaneswar Municipal limits.

…“The city will house nearly one lakh people in its 20,000 dwelling units. It will cater to the needs of all sections of people – low-income group (LIG), middle-income group (MIG) and high-income group (HIG). The cost of a house for the low-income group people might start from Rs 2 lakh. Separate projects for water supply and electricity would be undertaken,” said Singhdeo.

“Emphasis would be given to provide separate houses to those families who would provide daily services to 20,000 housing units. This would help the city remain slum free,” said the vice chairman.

Twenty per cent of the total housing units with fixed construction area will be reserved for the LIG and MIG groups. The cost would range between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 10 lakh. However, there will be no restriction for the HIG group. They can buy plots and houses according to their financial capacity.

The new city is a major component of the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) prepared by the IIT Kharagpur. The CDP has given emphasis on two important aspects that have direct bearing with the denizens – insufficient houses and transport problem. Moreover, according to the CDP, the issue of the demand for housing will be resolved on a priority basis.

“The demand for proper accommodation has triggered the satellite city concept. The satellite city, planned on the fringes, is a first attempt of BDA. After the successful execution of this ring town, couple of other satellite cities would be planned as the operational area of BDA is expanding,” said the vice-chairman.

The satellite city, planned over 1200 acres, includes 94 acres as government land which has already been handed over to BDA. The BDA has started the construction of a boundary wall earmarking the land. Rest of the area would be acquired by the private parties. Details of the rehabilitation of people who are likely to be ousted are being worked out.

ILFS-IDC, an international construction company, has been appointed as the advisor for this new project, which will be developed on private public partnership (PPP) mode. About 30 private investors of national and international repute have participated in the tender process.

…, the BDA has decided to develop the satellite city like that of Navi Mumbai. The BDA has started developing infrastructure over 94 acres of government land. The process of acquiring private land has not been started yet. …

“The satellite city will house 60 feet to 200 feet wide roads and all drainage and sewerage system would be laid underground,” said the minister adding that the private investors would prepare their mater plan accordingly.

For the last couple of years the IT industry growth in Bhubaneswar had slowed down. With the economic mood of the country back in the positive direction projects put in the backburner are now getting to the forefront. Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

… The proposed IT-SEZ will come up near the Infocity-II at Godakashipur, 15 km from the city. The project that included an integrated township would require 613 acres of land, IT minister Ramesh Chandra Majhi said.

“While the proposed IT-SEZ would be set up in an area of 320 acres of land, an integrated township would be developed in the remaining 180 acres of the total area. The rest would be kept in store to meet the future needs of the department," Majhi said.

As per the proposed plan, schools, colleges, hospitals, hotels and amusement parks would be developed. …

… the proposed SEZ would provide jobs to more than one lakh IT professionals. Another four lakh people would gain suitable employment opportunities in the project, which was scheduled to start its operation during 2011-2012 financial year.

“The Orissa Computer Application Centre (OCAC) will set up a seven-storied incubation tower. All small and medium scale entrepreneurs, engaged in the IT business, would be provided space at the centre at an affordable price. The centre would come near Acharya Bihar,’’ he said.

Construction of the incubation centre has already started.

So far, two IT parks are operational in the city. The government has already signed MoUs with DLF and Raheja groups to set up two more parks in the city. The fifth park will be set up by the government’s Industrial Development Corporation (IDCO).

Raheja group is planning to set up the IT park with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore in an area of 100 acres. The group has opted for a site near the Infocity of Bhubaneswar.

Real estate giant DLF is setting up another park with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore. The foundation stone has already been laid for the DLF Infopark, which would come up in phases on 25 acres of land and is expected to generate about 40,000 direct and indirect employment.

The minister claimed that the IT firms operating from the state had exported software worth Rs 1,198 crore during 2009-10 as against Rs 1,171 crore in 2008-2009.

Officials from the IT department said it was one of the few cities in the country that boasts of the presence of the big four of Indian software exports. While Infosys and Satyam have been in the city for quite some time, TCS has already recruited about 500 people after starting its operation in 2007.

Wipro, too, has started building its campus.

Nearly 12,000 people are directly engaged in the various IT industries.

… Moreover, along with the SEZ and IT parks, the state government is also planning to set up an Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) in the capital city. It would come up near Jatni, about 25 km from here. If things go right, it can attract an investment of Rs 15,000 crore, official sources said.

This is all good. The government should start steering away some of the IT firms to Berhampur, Rourkela, Balasore, and Sambalpur.

Following is from Samaja.

The above article says that this tribal museum is the best museum of UNESCO. I think what it means is that UNESCO designated it the best tribal museum in India. My interpretation is supported by a 2008 news report from Telegraph. Following are some excerpts.

Orissa Museum of Tribal Art and Artefacts will soon be a little more interactive and organised, thanks to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) that has offered to help.

The capital’s tribal museum showcases one of the widest variety of indigenous tools, weapons, baskets, pottery, textiles, ornaments and ritual objects and was recently identified as the “best” among 21 tribal museums in India.

Unesco has offered museum authorities a chance to get more systemic with scientific documentation of every exhibit.

“We plan to mention certain facts such as the area of origin, the motive or purpose behind the item, its socio-cultural implication and the material used. Digitisation of the documents and data would make each object easier to understand,” said special officer on duty S.C. Sahoo.

… Located on the premises of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Research and Training Institute, the archive displays objects from almost every tribe.

The Museum of Tribal Art and Artefacts currently houses about 2,247 artefacts.

There are dresses and ornaments, dokra items, musical instruments, hunting implements, fishing nets, weapons of offense and defence, agriculture tools, household objects, personal belongings, tribal art, photographs and terra cotta items in the archive.

Traditional costumes such as the ringa of the Bonda tribe, phute sari of the Santhals and gatungkap of Lanjia Saora can be seen at the museum — one of the few places that showcases such clothes.

Ornaments such as tangam of Lanjia Saora, shaska of Kutia Kondh, kunti of Juang and necklaces such as take mecodica of Dongria Kondh, puste of Koya, dabu and lubeida of the Bonda — are also a part of the unique collection.

The institute campus also houses five huts made according to Santhal, Juang, Gadaba, Saora and Kondh styles.

Following is an email that I and many other are sending to the PM, the Minister of Civil Aviation, the chief minister and other officials. Please consider sending similar emails to them. Feel free to add additional requests (such as air services to Rourkela airport, etc.) that may seem logical to you. The email addresses to send are: "Dr. Manmohan Singh" <pmosb@pmo.nic.in>, praful@sansad.nic.in, Chief Minister <cmo@ori.nic.in>, ps.moca@nic.in, secy.moca@nic.in, ctsec@ori.nic.in, "Sonia Gandhi" <soniagandhi@sansad.nic.in>, ortour@orissatourism.gov.in

To: Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister, Government of India

        Mr. Praful Patel, Minister of Civil Aviation, Government of India

  CC: Mr. Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister, Government of Orissa

  Dear Dr. Singh and Mr. Patel:

  Yet again Orissa is being neglected with respect to infrastructure development. While there are news reports [3] that Visakhapatnam airport will soon become an international airport, your government is neglecting the just demands of making Bhubaneswar an international airport even though the later would serve a much bigger population, will be the only international airport in the state, and as per your own data currently has 50% more daily flights than Visakhapatnam.

 Is this because Congress rules in Andhra Pradesh and is in the opposition in Orissa?

 Sir: We would like you to think about even development across India and not just about states ruled by the Congress party. It is your prerogative to establish as many international airports in Andhra Pradesh or any other state of your choice, and we are happy for them, but please do not neglect Orissa in the process.

 We would like to request you to designate the Bhubaneswar airport as an international airport and have Air India (Express) flights directly connecting Bhubaneswar to international destinations, starting with one or more south East Asian destinations such as Bangkok and Singapore. We would also like you to expedite the establishment and operationalization of a commercial airport in Jharsuguda which will cater to the industrial belt of Sambalpur-Jharsuguda-Sundergarh-Rourkela of Orissa and the Ib valley that encompasses Chhatisgarh and Orissa.

 The Bhubaneswar airport caters to the capital area of Orissa and its nearby areas. While the larger metropolitan area of Bhubaneswar [Map1] has a population of 19 lakhs [1], a 200kms radius of around Bhubaneswar consists of 14 of the 21 parliamentary constituencies of Orissa (Berhampur, Aska, Puri, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapada, Jagatsignhpur, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Phulbani) with a population of about 3 crores.

 This area includes several large population centers [Map2] as well as existing and emerging industrial hubs. These centers and hubs are Berhampur to the south, Puri and Paradeep to the east, Angul-Talcher to the west, Kalinganagar, Dhamara and Balasore to the North. The area also includes top tourist destinations such as Puri, Bhubaneswar, Chilika, as well as the Buddhist monuments of Orissa which are of special interest to East Asia. As you may know Buddhism spread to East Asia and beyond when Emperor Ashoka became Dharmshoka on the bank of the Daya river on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar.

 The area is also ripe for a logistic corridor with existing excellent Rail, Road, and Ports connectivity and with a national waterway under works. Thus an international airport would also make it a multi-modal logistic hub.

 The Bhubaneswar airport has a runway of 9000 feet and it is being extended to 10,500 feet.

 Currently, four airlines have regular flights linking Bhubaneswar, three of which have international operations. They are Kingfisher, Jetlite (of Jet) and Air India. The 4^th airline connecting Bhubaneswar is Indigo which commenced operations in India on 4th August 2006 and would be eligible for international flights in 2011.

 The average number of flights operating from Bhubaneswar [2] is 50, which is more than with respect to airports in Calicut – 50,  Nagpur – 48, Coimbatore – 42,  Mangalore – 30, Patna – 27, Srinagar – 27,  Amritsar – 27,   Trichy – 21, Varanasi – 16, Port Blair – 15, Tirupati – 9, Gaya – 1 all of which have been designated as international or customs airports.  In addition, there have been recent reports [3] that Visakhapatnam with an average of 33 flights will soon be an international airport.               

 In [Map3] we map the international and custom airports of India and as anyone would notice there is a big gap around Bhubaneswar.

 With Bhubaneswar emerging as an IT, Knowledge/Education and Tourism hub, and Odisha among the leaders in terms of incoming investments it is imperative that the Bhubaneswar airport be made to an international airport urgently.

 We sincerely request you to shed your partisan attitude of neglecting the non-Congress ruled state of Orissa (in favor of Congress ruled states like Andhra Pradesh) and  take immediate action on that front and declare Bhubaneswar as an international airport and commence international flights to/from Bhubaneswar.

 
[1] http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/1846

[2] http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=55629

[3] http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Visakhapatnam/article478992.ece

[4] http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=55628

Sincerely,

APPENDIX 1

From http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=55628

The average number of flights operated in a day from each of the International Airports in the country is as under: Mumbai(MIAL) – 654, Delhi (DIAL) – 666, Chennai – 306, Banglore (BIAL) – 280, Kolkata – 231, Hyderabad (GHIAL) – 219, Cochin – 112, Ahmedabad- 107, Guwahati – 90, Trivandrum – 71, Goa – 64, Calicut – 50, Jaipur – 66, Nagpur – 48, Port Blair – 15, Srinagar – 27, Amritsar – 27, Pune – 66, Indore – 61, Juhu – 60, Bhopal – 59, Lucknow – 56, Vadodra – 54, Bhubaneswar – 50, Coimbatore – 42, Visakhapatnam – 33, Ranchi – 32, Raipur – 31, Mangalore – 30, Patna – 27, Jammu- 23, Agartala – 23, Trichy – 21, Chandigarh – 21, Udaipur -21, Imphal – 19, Madurai – 20, Bagdogra – 19, Varanasi – 16,Aurangabad – 14, Silchar – 11, Tirupati – 9, Jodhpur – 7, Leh – 6, Rajkot – 6, Gaya – 1.

APPENDIX 2

FROM http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=55628

So far, seventeen airports in the country have been accorded “International Status”. These airports are Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Calicut, Chennai, Guwahati, Jaipur, Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi, Delhi, Mumbai, Nagpur, Goa, Port Blair and Srinagar. Of these, eight airports, namely, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Calicut, Chennai, Guwahati, Jaipur, Kolkata and Thiruvananthapuram belong to Airports Authority of India (AAI) and three Civil Enclaves, namely, Goa, Port Blair and Srinagar are maintained by AAI. AAI provides CNS / ATM services for five airports managed by Joint Venture Companies at Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Nagpur and for one private airport at Kochi. At Goa, Port Blair and Srinagar, which belong to Defence, AAI only maintains Civil Enclaves and CNS/ATM services are provided by Defence. In addition, Tirupathi airport has been declared as an international airport subject to the condition that the international airport may be made operational only after requisite facilities have been put in place.

Some airports are notified as Customs airports which can also cater to international flights. The customs airports are Varanasai, Tiruchirapalli (Trichy), Patna, Mangalore, Lucknow, Gaya, Coimbatore and Pune (civil enclave).

APPENDIX 3

From http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Visakhapatnam/article478992.ece

Favourable reply to Rosaiah’s letter to Union Ministry likely next month

International flights may very soon begin to land at the Visakhapatnam airport with the State Government taking firm initiative to get permission from the Union Government to formally declare it an International Airport.

The Department of Investment and Infrastructure now with Chief Minister Konijeti Roshaiah has written to Ministry of Civil Aviation to accord the requisite permission for the airport and a favourable reply was likely in July.

MAPS:

MAP 1: Greater Bhubaneswar area as per the CDP made by IIT Kharagpur

MAP 2: Population centers and industry hubs around the Bhubaneswar area (within about 200kms)

MAP 3:  International and Custom Airports of India (showing the big gap around Bhubaneswar)

Postscript: Again, if you would like to campaign for whatever else, Do it. No one is stopping you. But don’t act like the proverbial crabs and thwart efforts that are going on. Unfortunately, as evident from some of the responses (see for example the comments at tathya.in) , some people are not even reading the content carefully (otherwise they would notice the mention of Jharsuguda) and instead of doing something positive, they have a knee-jerk negative reaction.

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

The Handloom Export Promotion Council (HEPC) …

The council decided to set up three more design centres at Varanasi and Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh and Bhubaneswar in Orissa. These centres would help handloom weavers improve product quality and design and thereby, fetch a better price.

The HEPC web site is http://www.hepcindia.com/. From that site I could not find information on existing design centers. However I came across the site of National Center for Textile design in Delhi. My guess is that similar centers will be established in the three locations mentioned above. The About Us page of the this center says the following:

The National Centre for Textile Design (NCTD) has been setup in January 2001, by the Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India,  with the objective of making innovative, ethnic and contemporary design available to the textile sector.

The main aim of the centre is to link people working in the centre with each other and to give the weavers & workers better exposure to the markets. This will enable them to have better livelihood and more sustainable development.

The centre has both online and offline activities.

The online sector will exhibit these designs nationally and globally to facilitate the textile sector in getting designs in time as per seasonal forecast requirements and to enable regions as well as to develop on each others’ concepts.

We would like people, like power loom workers etc. also to benefit from the centre. This is done in several ways as for instance exhibiting their designs on NCTD website. This will give them exposure to exporters, international buyers, design houses and will help to obtain a better price for their designs through design trends and forecasts on the website and they can respond to the demands of the market in a better way.

NCTD plan to link up Weavers’ Sevice Centres, Powe4rloom Service Centres and all other textile related sites to our main website through internet connectivity so that these centre can take quick and necessary advantages of the centre for the benefit of their members.

Trends and Forecasts
Both domestic and international forecasts are collated and provided in one place to cater to many middle level and smaller apparel and furnishings manufacturers, exporters and domestic textile traders and producers so that they can respond adequately and in a timely fashion to market requirements.

Virtual Museum of Heritage Textiles
This is a cyber museum of textiles collated down the ages. The material is sourced from other resources and kept as a library for future references. 

Design Pool
This is one of the most important components of the NCTD. This is basically a cyber collection of new individual designs, collected from different sources and posted at one location.

Handicraft Fabrics from India
This section is essentially a directory of handcrafted textiles from India which contains a visual factual information and technical specifications of the items produced.

The proposed design center will nicely compliment the following textile and handloom related institutes in Odisha.

• IIHT (Indian Institute of Handloom Technology), Baragarh
• NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology), Bhubaneswar
• ATDC (Apparel Training and Design Centers) centers in Odisha:
  • An Eastern zone hub at Bhubaneswar
  • An Eastern zone center at Rourkela
  • Eastern zone satellite centers at Berhampur, Baripada and Cuttack

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

Kolkata-based Icore Group with interests in steel making, cement, gems and jewellery apparel and paints, would invest Rs 5,000 crore in Orissa setting up a 1.8 million tonne per annum (mtpa) steel plant and a cement crushing unit with a capacity of 5,000 tonnes per day.

The integrated steel cum cement complex would come up on 80 acres of land at Somanthpur in Balasore district. …

… Initially, Icore will start its steel plant operations with a capacity of 0.36 mtpa at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore and later scale up to 1.8 mtpa. While the cement crushing unit is set to commence operations from December 2010, the steel plant is expected to be operational by March next year.

In contrast Tata Steel is needing 3400 acres to set up a 6 MTPA steel plant in Kalinganagar. Perhaps I am missing something or something is amiss somewhere.

The face book page is at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/Tatasteelparivar. Following are some updates from that page.

• July 10, 1:19 AM: Construction at Site – The construction work at the main plant site will start shortly after the rehabilitation and resettlement process is completed. But other construction work to support the main plant like Intake Well, IM Section, Fabrication Yard, Hospital and most importantly the rehabilitation colonies and camps have already started.
• July 10, 1:22 AM
• July 12, 12:55 AM: Plant Equipments – Orders worth Rs 6,373 crore for the equipment and civil structures have already been placed. While the equipments like Blast Furnace and Sinter Plant for the steel plant have already been received and stored in the Tata Growth Shop and Agrico at Jamshedpur and Bamnipal, the orders for Steel Melting Shop and Coke Oven have been placed.
• July 12, 12:58 AM: Civil Structural Work – Orders of more than 1,000 crore for civil structural work has been placed.
• 12:59 AM: Intake Well – The intake well is located at Marthapur on the bank of river Brahmani, situated about 18 kms from the main plant site. This intake well will supply water to the plant.
• 1:00 AM: Fabrication Yard – The steel structures required for construction of different shops like steel melting shop, blast furnace etc are being fabricated at the Fabrication Yad at Jodabar. About 2200 MT of steel have already been fabricated at this unit. The members of Tata Steel Paribar after being trained are also working here.
• 11:42 PM: I M Section – The Company is constructing two covered sheds near Duburi to store the plant and machineries required for the construction of steel plant.
• 11:44 PM: Hospital – To extend better healthcare facilities to the people in and around Kalinga Nagar, Tata Steel is setting-up a hospital in Gobarghati rehabilitation colony. The hospital building is under construction on a land of 4 acres. When completed this hospital would serve 10,000 families with round-the-clock service, pathology lab and outdoor complex.
• 11:44 PM: Construction at the rehabilitation and resettlement Colonies – Tata Steel has developed three rehabilitation and resettlement colonies as well as five transit camps at Kalinga Nagar to ensure smooth living of the relocated families.
• 11:45 PM: Power to the Main Plant Site:- The Steel Plant at Orissa is a complex combination of Steel Processing technologies designed at much larger scale to improve efficiency and therefore have large demand on stability & control on operating areas including the Power generation & Distribution system.
• 11:45 PM: The plant has been designed with three separate sources to pull in Power and increase the tolerance of the system to handle large Power requirement of Steel Plant and with only GRID source during Construction
• 11:45 PM: The captive Power plant inside the Kalinganagar plant area fuelled by the By-product gases generated by the steel making process (CPP by Tata Power)
• 11:46 PM: Orissa Grid from 220 kV New Duburi GSSII Sub Station.
• 11:46 PM: Captive Coal based Power plant at Naraj Marthapur (CPP by Tata Power)
• July 13, 5:00 AM: Tata Steel Rural Development Society (TSRDS)a non-profit organisation has been trying to bring the displaced tribal communities of Jajpur District in Orissa to the mainstream through their socio-economic development. TSRDS has helped the tribal men and women from the displaced families in health care, safe drinking water, …sanitation, women empowerment, livelihood etc.
• July 14, 2:04 AM: Logistics – The life line of a steel plant is its logistics. It is a well known fact that every single ton of steel production needs transportation of minimum 4 ton of raw material and finished goods. So right from location selection to layout design, logistics plays a vital role in planning a new mega steel plant like the Kalinganagar Steel plant in Jajpur’ Orissa.
• 2:05 AM: Iron ore, coal (Domestic as well as imported) and imported limestone are the prime inputs for the steel plant. The Iron ore mines and main port of relevance i.e. Dhamra Port, is barely 100 KM from the plant site. For Orissa Steel Project all these sources are connected via rail linkages. Some through existing Indian R…ail network and some portion is planned under captive Logistic projects.
• 2:05 AM:  RITES had been appointed as the consultant to prepare the detail rail plan which consists of (a) The Traffic projection & Capacity calculation for the existing IR network (b) Rail alignment and Take off plan for Tata Steel’s Sidings. (c) Cost estimate of the total Project.
• 2:06 AM:  Apart from the plant internal rail yards Orissa Project, will require a 25 KM (Route Length) captive rail connection in Mines and a 20 KM (Route length) rail connection for plant connectivity to the nearest serving rail stations (Baghuapal & Jakhapura).
• 2:06 AM: These have been designed considering the highest operating efficiency level and zero process interruption probability. Railway Board and Zonal railway have finally accepted our comprehensive rail logistic proposal.
• 2:57 AM: At Integrated Industrial Complex, Kalinga Nagar, Duburi, in the district of Jajpur, in Odisha, a 6 million tonnes integrated steel plant of Tata Steel is proposed to be setup. Setting up the steel plant will necessitate displacement of about 679 families of three villages, namely, Gobaraghati, Chandia and Gadapur. Tata Ste…el has already started providing state of the art training for the members of the displaced families and would provide employment to one member of each extended family.Tata Steel is building model rehabilitation colonies for the resettlement of the displaced population so as to provide modern basic amenities and improved living conditions.Tata Steel believes that the primary purpose of the business is to improve the quality of life of people. Each of the displaced families will be a part of the ‘Tata Steel Parivar’ which is a committed and structured approach to ensure a better quality of life for the displaced families through focused interventions.
• July 15:  Apart from the plant internal rail yards Orissa Project, will require a 25 KM (Route Length) captive rail connection in Mines and a 20 KM (Route length) rail connection for plant connectivity to the nearest serving rail stations (Baghuapal & Jakhapura).
• These have been designed considering the highest operating efficiency level and zero process interruption probability. Railway Board and Zonal railway have finally accepted our comprehensive rail logistic proposal.
• Although the bulk of the Material movement for an operating steel plant is done via rail transport for all the external movement and through conveyor system for in-plant movements.
• But road transport also plays a vital role in the operating logistics of a steel plant, due to the fact that, there is no economical means of transporting a wide variety of materials required for or generated from the operation of process plants, which needs transportation in small quantity for a short distance.
• In addition, a significant portion of the finished goods movement is required to be transported by road vehicles only.
• But Unlike Jamshedpur, fortunately Kalinganagar industrial area is well-connected by road. Our Plant site is flanked by Daitari- Paradip express way which got converted to NH-200 recently and on the eastern side, the state highway connects the Sukinda Mines, to our plant site.
• A road transport planning for a steel plant includes building roadways and plant roads , parking stations, maintenance facilities, service roads, a transport circulation plan and a scientific traffic projection. All these have been done with the help of a professional organization.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

… "After completing the official procedures, we will sign an MoU for the CTL project involving an investment of Rs 42,000 crore," JSPL Executive Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Naveen Jindal told reporters after a meeting with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here this evening.

…Stating that he discussed with the chief minister the group’s four projects comprising the Rs 52,000-crore steel plant, a thermal power plant involving Rs 6,600 crore, the Rs 42,000-crore CTL plant and an industrial complex envisaging an investment of Rs 500 crore, Jindal said a total of Rs 1,01,100 crore would be invested in Orissa over the next decade.

"We also discussed (with the chief minister) on our proposal of enhancing steel capacity from 6 million tonne per annum (mtpa) to 12.5 mtpa," he said, adding the department of steel and mines is likely to list this project for consideration of the task-force by the end of July.

Jindal said, on completion, "about 80,000 barrel of oil per day will be manufactured from the proposed CTL plant." The project is likely to be listed in next task-force meeting in July itself, he added.

… Earlier, the Tata Group, in collaboration with Sasol of South Africa, had evinced interest in setting up a similar coal-to-liquid plant in the state.

… Jindal indicated to set up the unit in Angul district where its steel plant is being built.

JSPL, which had already been alloted a coal block in the state, would complete its proposed CTL petroleum project in eight years, a company executive said, adding about 32,000 would get employment in the project.

… While many mega industries face difficulties in implementing their MoUs, the JSPL chief said his company got support of the local people in Angul district.

Besides these four mega projects, JSPL is also working on setting up an engineering college and a power training institute, Jindal said adding the company is committed to recruit local youths in its plants.

Following is an excerpt from a report in LA Times about the Nano plant in Gujarat and how some of the landlosers have managed their finances.

But Pathan, and scores like him who live in the shadow of a new factory built by Tata Motors to make its ultra-cheap Nano car, are the beneficiaries of the race to transform India from a nation of small farmers to an industrialized power.

… Against this backdrop of strife, Pathan’s story is the ideal of what could be achieved if the more than 50 percent of Indians who live off the land get a real stake in the new economy. It’s a principle that advocates of market capitalism and human rights activists can agree on, but that often fails to materialize across rural India, where stories of powerful business interests and corrupt officials conspiring to throw poor farmers off their land are all too common.

Around the Tata plant in Sanand, in the western state of Gujarat, people have begun to talk of the "Nano effect."

Go down a narrow lane that runs to dirt not 15 minutes from the factory and amid the gamboling goats of Chharodi village, you will find 25 new homes.

Property prices have risen sharply — from 50 to 400 percent — and men are making fortunes brokering land deals.

The village head says three dozen of the 3,000 people in Chharodi have gotten work from contractors. The Nano factory hasn’t given them jobs directly, but it has offered a toehold in the industrial economy. They remain farmers, but a growing part of their income comes from informal business ventures or work for contractors.

Pathan and his three brothers sold the government one-third of their family farm to make way for the Nano plant. They were paid 20 million rupees ($432,900) — a fortune even in Gujarat, one of India’s richest states.

Ask the Pathan brothers what they did with this money, and they grin like schoolboys.

They bought 2.7 hectares (6.6 acres) of land — more than doubling their initial landholding — three kilometers (two miles) away, where they are preparing to plant their first crop.

They bought seven tractors and three Bolero jeeps, which they use for contracting work at the Nano site, raking in 455,000 rupees ($9,848) a month.

They are rebuilding their family home. Gone is the mud and thatch. Today their angular concrete two-story is the biggest on the block.

"You’ve done a damn good job out here," Pathan says of Ratan Tata, who heads the Tata group’s sprawling industrial empire.

The underlined part above is an important part. If the land losers are paid multiple times the "current" value of their land, in most places they can easily buy more than that amount of land within a few kms.

Following is an excerpt from a Nageswar Patnaik article in Economic Times. 

There is something to cheer about for the families displaced by the Tata Steel Project at Kalinganagar. These families have achieved zero dropout rate at elementary school level, sustainable environment, poverty eradication, increase in literacy rate, gender equality, empowerment of women.

The achievers of these challenging Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are not highly educated and extraordinary urbanite people, but ordinary members of self-help groups residing in rehabilitation colonies at Kalinga Nagar in Orissa’s Jajpur district.

Helped by country’s major steel producer, Tata Steel, the self-help groups called Tata Steel Parivars (TSPs) have successfully ensured that all children living in the colony went to the school and got education. Tata Steel is setting up of a 6-million ton per annum integrated steel plant at Kalinganagar Industrial Complex at Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district.

“The noteworthy achievement of Tata Steel Parivars [TSP] at Kalinganagar is that those families have achieved the target of 100% elementary education with zero school drop out rate,” says Sukanta Rout, an educationist who played a crucial role in motivating the children, mostly tribals, to go to the school.

As many as 159 tribal children have been enrolled in the residential schools in Jajpur district. Similarly, 50 children have got the opportunity of studying in one of the premier schools of the state – Kalinga Institute of Social Science (KISS), here. As many as 213 children are studying in schools as day scholars.

Simultaneously, there is significant jump in the literacy levels of the TSPs from 45% in 2005 to 65% in 2010.

Most significantly, there has been an incredible and drastic change in the will power of women of these relocated families. The empowered women community are now self-employed and going overboard for what they are doing. They have engaged themselves in poultry farming, gardening, stone carving, saura painting and in setting up of small industries like phenyl and pickles.

“A few years before, we were quite poor, – we did not have money to even buy food, let alone send our children to school. Now with own our income, we are not only meeting our day-today expenses but also support our school and college-going children,” says Jamiti Mahanta, head of an SHG group.

If the industries that are coming up in Odisha, such as POSCO and Vedanta, can be made to do the above and perhaps more then it will be a win-win situation for all. POSCO’s current package seems to be a step in the right direction. Following is an excerpt from a Business Standard article on that.

Posco, the biggest foreign direct investment (FDI) in India at $12 billion (Rs 54,000 crore), has offered the largest ever compensation package in the country for the displaced and landless farmers.

The Rs 400 crore compensation — part of its estimated project cost — announced by Posco India for Orissa, is expected to benchmark industry relief in the country. The package will benefit over 2000 encroachers and landless labourers at the Posco site.

While Rs 100 crore will be provided for the acquisition of government and private land, Rs 100 crore will be given towards building a rehabilitation colony and Rs 200 crore as compensation to encroachers of government land.

The move – including encroachers of government land and landless labourers earning their livelihood from the area – was beyond the prescription of the state or national rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) policies.

While fixing the price of private land at Rs 17 lakh per acre, the Rehabilitation and Periphery Development Advisory Committee (RPDAC) for the Posco project announced a compensation of Rs 11.5 lakh an acre for the loss of betel vines, most of which are on government land. There are about 1,877 betel vines in the site covering 300 acres.

Landless labourers working in the betel vines will get 20 per cent of the total compensation for the loss, which is over and above the amount paid to the owners of the areas where betel is grown.

Similarly, RPDAC has prescribed assistance of Rs 2 lakh per acre for owners of the prawn gheris — most of which are operating on government land — and Rs 1 lakh an acre for farmers using government land for agriculture.

In a never-before step, the South Korean steel giant’s package will pay an unemployment allowance of Rs 2,250 a month to the landless labourers, who will lose their livelihood following the acquisition, till they are provided job by the company. Capping it all, RPDAC has decided to provide alternative housing to families who had encroached and built their houses on government land.

In comparison, the compensation package for sharecroppers or landless labourers in Bengal’s Singur was 25 per cent of what the land owner received — for a single-crop Rs 2 lakh and Rs 3 lakh for double-crop farmland. In Nayachar, the West Bengal government had promised to rehabilitate 100-150 fishermen families who had encroached upon government land — the site for a chemical hub.

The rate is also more than what neighbouring Chhattisgarh is offering. The government there recently hiked the compensation to Rs 10 lakh for an acre for two-crop farmland, Rs 8 lakh an acre for single-crop un-irrigated land and Rs 6 lakh for barren land.

The captive mines given to these companies and the royalty rate is a different issue. I believe that currently the royalty given to the state is too little.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

Topping the lists of the prospective investors is Gokul Agrawal of CTC Education Pvt Ltd who intends to invest Rs 6000 crore over five years in developing a 1000-acre knowledge city.

In the higher education sector, Silicon University of the Silicon Valley Group has proposed to set up its campus in the state at a cost of Rs 300 crore. Investments would also be pouring in for the state’s hospitality sector with the US-based Best Western Hotel lining up a Rs 100-crore investment plan for setting up a chain of properties at Bhubaneswar, Paradip, Chilka and Jharsuguda.

Land could become an issue with respect to the proposed knowledge city. A city/town/community that may want such a knowledge city which, I am told, would include multiple universities could offer help in the land part. They should of course first investigate if the group really has that much money and if their plan is for real.

Thanks to Sunil Sabat for the photograph.

Following is an excerpt from a report in expresscomputerline.

S.P. Singh, Sr. Director, DIT, Government of India, underscored the importance of support infrastructure in e-governance implementations. The government of India has taken the initiative of providing this infrastructure and its three pillars are State WAN (SWAN), State Data Centers (SDC) and Citizen Service Centers (CSC).

…The mandate of the SDC scheme is that data centers are to be set up in all 35 states and union territories. It involves an outlay of 1,623 crores over five years and this takes care of the CAPEX for setting up data centers as well as the OPEX for five years.

The idea (SDC) is to concentrate and migrate IT infrastructure in state governments to a centralized environment that provides 24×7 services.

With regard to BC and DR, Singh said the four data centers of the NIC will provide disaster recovery to individual states. A 64,000 sq. ft. data center will come up in Delhi to begin with. Pune, Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar will follow suit eventually.

BC refers to Business Continuity and DR refers to Disaster Recovery.

Following is an excerpt from a report in tathya.in.

The State Level Single Window Authority (SLSWA) chaired by the Chief Secretary green signalled projects worth of Rs.37,440 crore.

Expansion of Alumina Refinery at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi from the existing 1 Million Ton Per Annum (MTPA) to 6 MTPA has been allowed.

This project is facing opposition from local people and Union Minister for Forest & Environment, said sources.

Aluminium Smelter at Jharsuguda from the existing 0.25 MTPA to 1.60 MTPA expansion allowed by the Authority, said an official.

Similarly expansion of the Captive Power Plant (CPP) at Jharsuguda from 675 MW to 1350 MW has been allowed, said sources.

These proposals were pending earlier and with the clearance of Single Window Authority, it will go to the High Level Clearance Authority (HLCA) for final clearance, said an official.

The Coastal Belt.

The Western Industrial Belt.

The Southwestern & Central Outposts.

Earlier we discussed the coastal belt and the western industrial corridor. However, there is a big part of Odisha outside of these two areas. Although, that area was long neglected except small industrial pockets in Rayagada and Koraput area, things have started happening in the overall area. Following is a map of that.

In the map above Berhampur and Balangir are reference points for the southern tip of the coastal belt and western industrial area respectively. Coming back to the outposts the current industrial areas are:

• Koraput-Jeypore Sunabeda and
• Rayagada-Therubali

They are 150 kms apart. Besides industries, both areas have several engineering colleges and a central university (possibly with a medical college) is coming up near Koraput.

North of Rayagada-Therubali is the Lanjigarh operations of Vedanta and its emerging township. How fast this area develops will depend on how quick there is an understanding between the loacls and the Vedanta people.

Further north is the Bhawanipatna-Kesinga-Titlagarh area. Titlagarh is a railway junction. A train line connecting Bhawanipatna and Junagarh to Lanjigarh rd of the Raygada-Titlagarh line should have passenger traffic in a couple of years. Recently, Bhawaniptna is getting some attention from the state government in terms of HRD institutions. A government engineering college and a government agricultural college has started here and the higher education task force has recommended a state university here. A private medical college is under construction. (However, its progress is slow.) I hope the government takes over the medical college infrastructure that has been built and makes it a government medical college and a location in this area is chosen for the announced Railway wagon factory.  However, for the area to further develop and develop rapidly, the locals need to actively chip in. They need to learn how locals in the Koraput area, Rayagada area, Gunupur and Parlakhemundi have created  and/or facilitated private HRD infrastructure. (For example, each of them have private engineering colleges.) In addition they should form a win-win partnership with Vedanta. If people don’t help themselves and don’t stop actively opposing private development instead of facilitating it, there is only so much the governments can do.

On the eastern side Parlakhemundi and Gunupur are slowly emerging as educational mini-hubs. The JITM and CRESM in Parlakhemundi are together becoming a private university and Gunupur has the biggest (in terms of student intake) engineering college (private or government) of the state. The railway line connecting Gunupur and Parlakhemundi to the Howrah-Chennai line at Naupada is about to start passenger service.

The lone central outpust is Phulbani. At present it has nothing much except some negative name recognition. The government needs to pay attention to this starting with pushing for the early establishment of a branch of the Tribal University here.

However, there are still several areas which are being left out. This includes the area south of Koraput (namely the Malkangiri district) and the districts of Nabarangpur and Nuapada. Unless development spreads there, they will be the new KBK of Odisha.

In 20 years (i.e., in 2030) the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Khurda population would be around 4 million plus. In addition the area would be surrounded by the following cities/towns within 150 kms radius (i.e., about a hour and half away).

• Berhampur-Gopalpur to the south (with a then population of 1.5 million; about 145 kms away)
• Puri to the south (with a then population of 700K; only 30kms away)
• Kalinganagar to the North (with a then population of 500K; only 50 kms away)
• Talcher-Angul to the West (with a then population of 500K; only 110 kms away)
• Dhenkanal to the west (with a then population of 200K and almost in the periphery)
• Paradip to the east (with a then population of 400K and 90 kms away)
• Dhamara-Chandbali to the Northeast (with a then population of 200K and 140 kms away)
• Bhadrak to the North (with a then population of 200K and 140 kms away)

A little farther is

• Balasore-Chandipur to the North (with a then population of 300K and 162 kms away from the Northern end of Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Khurda area)

In addition there will be several port towns other than the ones mentioned above and a few smaller towns (For example, Nayagarh)  within 200km radius of greater Bhubaneswar.

Besides individual CDPs for these areas the Odisha governement should start making plans for this larger overall area. It would form a different kind of megalopolis than New Delhi, Mumbai or Kolkata with a well planned hub (Bhubaneswar) surrounded by mini-hubs and with rural areas in between. I can not off-hand think of another such area in the world; may be the readers can point me to some. Please suggest what kind of plans need to be made. (Please note that for something to be up and running in 20 years, plans need to be made now.) For example:

• Commuter trains at frequent intervals and the necessary infrastructure for that. Following are some of the segments
  • Bhubaneswar-Puri-Konark-Astaranga (Puri-Konark-Astaranga needs to be built; alternatively if Astaranga port comes up, then there may be a new line from Barang to Astaranga)
  • Bhubaneswar-Berhampur-Gopalpur (Berhampur-Gopalpur needs to be built)
  • Bhubaneswar-Jajpur Rd(Kalinganagar)-Bhadrak-Dhamara (Bhadrak-Dhamara is ready but no trains yet)
  • Bhubaneswar-Jajpur Rd(Kalinganagar)-Bhadrak-Balasore-Baripada
  • Bhubaneswar-Jakhapura(Kalinganagar)-Tomka (on the line to Kendujhargarh)
  • Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Paradeep (ready)
  • Bhubaneswar-Dhenkanal-Talcher-Angul (ready)
  • Bhubaneswar-Khurda-Nayagarh and beyond (being constructed; part of Khurda-Balangir)
  • Angul-Talcher-Sukinda-Kalinganagar (being constructed)
• Expressways linking these places
• Fast buses linking these places
• Fast airport shuttle
• Some of these places would be connected by waterways including National Waterway 5
• Express ring road around each of these places
• Co-ordinated public transport in each of these places
• ??

Please let your imagination run wild!