___________

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

Though the AAI had asked the State Government to make available a total of 815 acres of land for the airport project, the latter had requested the AAI to scale down the land requirement since maximum 734 acres are available in the area.

Now, the State Government has assured the AAI to provide additional land of around 40 acres for upgradation of the airstrip. Patnaik said the 40 acres of land would help construct a 6,000-feet-long runway. The district Collector has been told to identify suitable land and clear the encroachment, if any, before handing over the land to the AAI.

Although the above is a good step, considering the important of this airport towards well-rounded development of Odisha the government is too slow. It needs to move faster.

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

The state government has started work on development of a railway corridor through Choudwar to Rourkela to allow ease of inward and outward transportation of goods from the industrial hubs and mining belts along the region.

Land acquisition for the project, the first of its kind initiative by a state government, has already been initiated by the Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco). The project would go on ground after the land acquisition and is targeted to be completed by 2015, said Idco CMD Priyabrata Patnaik on Friday.

The corridor involves development of extensive rail and road connectivity, along with provisioning of water supply and other infrastructural facilities. The corridor would encompass two track railway lines and six-lane road passing through the industrial hubs and the coal mining belts. New industrial areas and downstream units would be developed along the corridor.

Common infrastructure facilities under the corridor would solve the problems of inward and outward transportation of goods and minerals. The stretch would pass through the heart of coal mining operations in the state, which harbours about 65 billion tonne of reserves. The coal reserves in the Talcher belt only is around 43 billion tonne.

The corridor would cover 17 large and mega-industries, along with 57 other units, through the stretch from Choudwar to Rourkela. Traffic projection on the route is given out as 8.7 million tonne.

The route would have 163 km of railway track length and 465 km on road. As many as 308 minor bridges and 77 major bridges would have to be constructed on it, said Patnaik.

Note 1: The 163 km of railway track probably refers to the Talcher-Bimlagarh segment.

Note 2: Although the above report only mentions the Choudwar-Rourkela part, in earlier documents there is mention of Paradeep-Choudwar-Rourkela industrial corridor. See for example this 2009 Business Standard report. Following are some excerpts from that.

The Orissa government plans to develop an industrial corridor running from Paradeep to Rourkela through industrial hubs like Choudwar, Talcher and Sambalpur.

Though the initial proposal was to have an industrial corridor originating from Choudwar to Rourkela, the proposal was modified to extend the corridor till Paradeep to allow inward and outward transport of goods through the Paradeep port, sources said.

… The proposed industrial corridor will be in line with the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and is designed to pass through national highway no.42 and national highway no 5 (A).

Under the project, both road and rail corridor will be developed, which will be the backbone of the proposed project. The industrial estates and down stream units would be developed over 25 km area on both sides of the corridor.

IL&FS has been appointed as the consultant for the project and it has already submitted the pre-feasibility study report to the industry department on the project. However, the detail cost of the project is yet to be worked out yet, sources added.

…

The latest initiative of the state government follows a similar initiative to develop a common ‘rail-road-water pipeline and infrastructure corridor’ in Meramundali-Angul-Talcher-Chhendipada belt, to facilitate movement of coal in the Talcher coalfield area.

The project is estimated to cost about Rs 5000 crore including Rs 2000 crore for 2-line rail corridor and Rs 1100 crore for 4 lane road alongside it. The land width of the proposed corridor will be 300 metre which includes 60 metre for road and 20 metre for water pipeline.

The total length of the corridor is 137 kilometre which includes length of 43 number of major bridges to be constructed on this stretch. RITES Ltd has already submitted a pre-feasibility report to the state owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa Ltd. (Idco) on the project.

The project is designed to have multi-point centralised loading stations conceived along the corridor rather than individual bulb connections with a view to avoid interference or wastage of coal bearing areas. Road and water pipe alignment will run parallel to rail alignment, sources said.

It will be connected to rail line at three locations- Jharpada, Angul and Budhapanka. The common corridor will have multiple entry and exit points and no surface crossing. Besides, flyovers are proposed to avoid cross movements at junction stations.

This ‘rail-road-water pipeline and infrastructure corridor’ in Meramundali-Angul-Talcher-Chhendipada belt is projected to handle 113 million tonne coal by 2014-15. It includes 55 million tonne coal movement required by the power companies, 40.76 million tonne by steel companies and 17.22 million tonne by other industries.

Thanks to Saket Sahu @ Orissatoday google group for the pointer.

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

The single window committee (SWC) on Friday approved proposals for four industrial units, two of them power plants, with an investment of Rs 1,286.61 crore.

… The proposal of M/S Beverages Private Limited to set up a soft drink beverages unit with capacity of one lakh crates per annum at Atabira in Bargarh district with an investment of Rs 59.61 crore was approved in the meeting.
Similarly, the proposal of M/S Essar Power Orissa Limited to set up 4×30 MW captive power plant in two phases at Paradip with an investment of ` 683 crore was also given the green signal.

It is expected that the project will provide employment opportunity to 200persons.

The proposal submitted by Investa Ventures Limited for setting up a LED manufacturing plant and incubation park at Chandaka near Bhubaneswar with an estimated investment of Rs 190 crore was also approved.

The plant will produce energy saving LED electric bulbs and tubes and is expected to open employment opportunities for 470 persons.

Besides, the proposal of M/S Ultra Tech Cement Ltd for expansion of the existing cement grinding capacity from 1MTPA to 3 MTPA at Jharsuguda Cement Works and bulk terminal in Cuttack district with an investment of ` 354 crore has also got the approval of the committee.

In the last couple of days there have been several news items regarding improving the air connectivity and airport infrastructure in Odisha. These include:

• Steps towards improving the current airport in Bhubaneswar.
• Steps towards expediting the Jharsuguda airport.
• Steps towards having air services to two additional airports in the state.

Following are some of the news items and excerpts.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

The work on five major National Highway (NH) projects in the state- Bhubaneswar-Puri, Bhubaneswar-Sambalpur, Bhubaneswar-Chandikhole, Sambalpur-Bargarh and Remudi-Rajamunda (NH-215) will begin in February 2011. While work on four-laning of the Bhubaneswar-Puri NH is expected to be completed soon, the remaining projects will be commissioned within three years."The work on these NH projects will commence in February 2011 and the projects are expected to be commissioned within three years. The work is being taken up on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode and the cost assessment will be made by NHAI. …

While work will be taken up for four-laning of Bhubaneswar-Puri (60 km) and Sambalpur-Bargarh (88-km) NHs, the Bhubaneswar-Sambalpur and Bhubaneswar-Chandikhole (62 km) highways will be six laned. As per the thumb rule Rs 4 crore will be spent per km on building these highways.

Thanks to reader Jitu for the pointers.

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

Nikon India, the 100% subsidiary of Nikon Corporation the leaders in imaging technology has started Nikon Collection Centre (NCC), an initiative taken by Nikon India to cater to the wider base of Nikon customers by floating Camera Collection Points across locations, especially the non metro areas.

… The collection centres would act as main contact point for collection of any Nikon Imaging Products ( D-SLR’s, COOLPIX Compact cameras, NIKKOR lenses and accessories) that shall be sent for repair to the nearest Service Facility Centre for necessary correction by NCC. Once repaired, the product will be sent back to NCC from where customer can collect his product. 

 

Under the plan for the business year 2010-2011, Nikon has already started the services in Bhopal, Noida & Mangalore. Going forward Nikon plans to start the services in Siliguri, Dehradun, Kanpur, Nagpur, Mysore and Tiruanantpuram within this month and Dhampur, Sambalpur, Udaipur, Varanasi, Shimla, Aitsar, Jammu, Agra, Coimbatore, Vishakapatnam and Rajkot taking the total to 20 by the end of this financial year.

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

IBM has chalked out plans to expand its business development processes to smaller cities in the country over the next couple of years. The company plans to spread its footprint to 45 cities of India. At present, a large part of the company’s business comes from the metropolitan cities such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.

“Business activities of small and medium business enterprises are increasing at a fast pace in smaller cities of the country and it is logical for us to expand our footprint across the country,” said Nipun Mehrotra, vice president, general business, IBM India and South Asia. He said with the growth of Indian economy, the small and medium enterprises would flourish and opportunities would increasingly come up in cities such as Ranchi, Ludhiana, Tirupur and Jharsuguda, among others.

Following is from http://eylex.co.in/Pages/Sambalpur.aspx. The mall in Sambalpur is promoted by K.K. Homes (a local Developer of Sambalpur) and will have a three screen multiplex with 800 seats. Its target Operational date is March 2011.

Following is the picture from http://eylex.co.in/Pages/Jharsugda.aspx.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

A private airline today submitted a proposal to the state government to start a daily air service between Rourkela and Calcutta. The company initially proposes to operate an 18-seater aircraft.

The company, which has done a preliminary survey, intends to use the airstrip of Rourkela steel plant but it has urged the government to provide another 64 acres to develop the airstrip. In the second phase, it plans to start anther flight from Rourkela to Bhubaneswar via Jharsuguda. The proposal is under consideration, said sources. Representatives of the airline met the chief secretary Bijay Patnaik and submitted their proposal today.

My position is that the ministry is most welcome to make Vizag an international airport; but it should not deprive Bhubaneswar the same. Since the above article pokes holes on Bhubaneswar’s claims for international designation and explicitly mentions Vizag, hence my following attemp to compare the two in terms of daily non-stop flight connectivity. I used http://www.cleartrip.com and used the dates of 18th and 26th Novmeber. (This is an initial attempt. If I missed something please let me know.)

* The Kingfisher Delhi-Bhubaneswar flights are canceled for now, in November they show twice a day and in some December dates they show once a day. Its exact schedule is at http://www.flykingfisher.com/Flex/schedules.pdf. There it shows the following:

Delhi (DEL) IT 3346 19:30 21:25 320 0 03 Oct 2010 24 Oct 2010 7 Kingfisher Red Service
Delhi (DEL) IT 3346 20:30 22:40 320 0 31 Oct 2010 22 Mar 2011 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 Kingfisher Red Service
Delhi (DEL) IT 3350 09:10 11:20 320 0 31 Oct 2010 22 Mar 2011 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 Kingfisher Red Service

Bhubaneswar (BBI) IT 3345 17:05 19:00 320 0 03 Oct 2010 24 Oct 2010 7 Kingfisher Red Service
Bhubaneswar (BBI) IT 3345 17:45 19:55 320 0 31 Oct 2010 22 Mar 2011 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 Kingfisher Red Service
Bhubaneswar (BBI) IT 3349 06:30 08:40 320 0 31 Oct 2010 22 Mar 2011 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 Kingfisher Red Service

That is it will have twice daily flights between Bhubaneswar and Delhi.

Some other comparative numbers:

• As per http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=55629 average number of flights operated in a day from Bhubaneswar is 50 and from Vizag is 33.
• As per the world-gazetteer the population of the Bhubaneswar metropolitan area is 1,696,807 and the population of the Vizag metropolitan area is 1,534,162. 

On Jharsuguda airport there seems to be a deadlock. It is clear that the center wants 815 acres land and the state is offering only 734 acres.

Why is not the state giving the amount of land the center is asking for? Is there some genuine reason behind it? I don’t know. Perhaps someone who knows can help.

Also is the amount of land that the center is asking an absolute must? Are there other operational airports with less land? (I don’t know.) Ofcourse more land would mean a bigger airport. But is not it possible to use the land the state is giving to make the airport and then pursue the additional land for future expansion.

Update: Just did some search and found that:

• Patna airport covers an area of only 254 acres.
• Varanasi airport covers an area of 582.5 acres.
• Trivandrum airport is a 583 acres campus.
• Tirupati airport: Currently at 293 acres and will grow to 690 acres.
• Dibrugarh airport: 253.96 acres.
• Jaipur airport: 716 acres.
• Tiruchi airport: 702 acres.
• Jammu airport: 88.7 acres. (??)
• Srinagar airport: 52.6 acres. (??)
• Ranchi airport: 526 acres.

Outside India there are some very busy airports that have around 700 acres of land. For example:

• La Guardia Airport in New York is 650 acres. (It is next to a river through.)
  • In 2008, 176,373 flights departed LaGuardia. That makes it an average of 483 flights a day.
• Reagan National Airport in Washington DC is 733 acres. (It is also next to a river.)

The power plant is of 2400 MW capacity out of which 600 MW will be provided to Odisha at a low cost. Vedanta is building a 100 bd hospital in that area as a CSR measure.

Tathya.in has an article about this. Following are some excerpts.

The Odishans world-wide now recognize the need of International Flights to Bhubaneswar and Domestic Flights to Jharsuguda in order to effectively connect to the hi-tech businesses and tourism around the world.

Without the requisite air connectivity, Odisha cannot expect a jumpstart in development given all the potential that the state has in Tourism, Education and IT, feels Purna Mohanty, leading Non Resident Odia(NRO).

It all started during Pre Invest Bhubaneswar meeting at Hotel Swosti in May 2010, said he.

And then further concretized with hard-copy signature campaign during Invest Bhubaneswar and OSA Convention during 1-4 July, followed by Ratha Yatra Festival in Silicon Valley, CA, USA.

The signature campaign was completed and submitted to Prime Minister, Civil Aviation Minister, Chief Minister and Member of Parliaments.

NROs are thus presenting an overall proposal of Air connectivity in Odisha, with a request to consider & expedite the implementation of the following at the minimum:

Upgrade the 6 decade old regional Airport at Bhubaneswar to an International Airport at the earliest possible.

Expedite and complete the construction of ongoing western regional Jharsugda Airport in Jharsugda district, in western Odisha, within next two years.

The petitionodisha site has a petition on immediate upgradations of airports in Odisha. Please visit it. Besides signing it please also send emails (email addresses of where to send is given here) as in my experience emails have more impact than e-petitions. While our earlier email sample only mentioned Bhubaneswar and Jharsuguda, the petition adds Jeypore. It is indeed a good location for a 3rd functioning airport of Odisha. (We earlier wrote about it.) Feel free to add that to your email. 

Pointers to relevant postings from the past:

• Jain Steel, an obstacle to Jharsuguda airport.
• Bhubaneswar international airport issue raised in the assembly.
• Jharsuguda airport status statement by the CM in the assembly.
• Campaign for international airport in Bhubaneswar and airport in Jharsuguda.
• Jharsuguda airport to be developed by PPP?
• Future airport plans (includes info on Jeypore and Rasgovindpur).
• 800 acres needed for Jharsuguda airport.
• Airstrips in Odisha.
• MOU to be signed for Jharsuguda airport.

I don’t know if being the largest power producer city is something good by itself. In general heavy industrialization is happening in Jharsuguda, and a full-fledged airport is coming up there.
However, matching HRD institutions and other amenities are not being made there. There are universities (Sambalpur U and VSSUT) and a medical college in Burla which is about 50 kms away, but none (except the private engineering college, Black Diamond) in Jharsuguda or its adjacent industrial townships of Belphar and Barajarajnagar. This needs to be corrected. Following are some quick thoughts.

• Branches of Sambalpur U and VSSUT should be established there.
• Jharsuguda Engineering School should be upgraded to an engineering college.
• One of the local companies, especially the ones mining in Ib, should be pushed to establish a medical college there.

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 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 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.

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.

The government must investigate this.