___________

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer. (Tathya.in also has a similar report.)

The Centre has proposed to set up an Integrated Marketing Project for the development and promotion of handicrafts and handloom of Orissa with a special focus on Tribal and Fibre Crafts.

The project is proposed to be executed by Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) and IL&FS. It will involve an investment of approximately Rs.100 crore.

In order to make it a reality, Executive Director of the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts, Rakesh Kumar along with other senior officials called on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at Orissa Bhawan in New Delhi on Saturday and apprised him about the project.

During the meeting, Patnaik said the State has a vast potential for development of Tribal Crafts, Tribal Jewellery, Dhokra Casting, Silver Filigree work and other metal work, Terracotta, Wood work, Appliqué work, horn work, golden grass work, Cane and Bamboo products.

Kumar informed the Chief Minister that the project will include various components like human resource development, design & product development, national & international marketing, setting up of a state of the art Crafts Complex at Bhubaneswar and Puri as well as setting up of showrooms abroad.

It has been widely reported that the total money sanctioned for railway projects in Orissa in the 2008-09 Railway budget is 972.34 crores. This amount comes from adding up the items in the pink and the orange book.

Many people wrongly interpret that "total money sanctioned for railway projects in Orissa in the 2008-09 Railway budget is 972.34 crores" means that the amount is of new money. That is NOT true. This amount may include money that was sanctioned in earlier budgets but has not yet been spent.

See the two attached sheets: one from the pink book of  2007-08 and another from the pink boom of 2008-09

Lets take the last item in both: Rajathagarh-Barang doubling

In 2007-08:
Anticipated cost                       – 240 crores
Outlay expect to end of 06-07 – 102.7 crores
Outlay proposed for 07-08      – 86 crores
Balance to complete work       – 51.3 crores

In 2008-09:
Anticipated cost                       – 240 crores
Outlay expect to end of 07-08 – 96.7 crores
Outlay proposed for 07-08      – 125 crores
Balance to complete work       – 18.33 crores

Most papers have reported that the budget as 125 crores for the doubling of Rajathagarh-Barang.

Yes, but not all of that is new money.

This year’s budget only adds 33 crores of new money to this item. (The rest is from previous years’ budget).

Update: See http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/?p=1231 for a few more trains announced later.

This is from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=35592.

New Trains:

• Bhubaneswar-Sambalpur-Mumbai (twice a week)
• Varanasi-Rameshwaram express (weekly)
• Puri -Darbhanga express (weekly)
• Paradeep – Bhubaneswar Express (daily – in lieu of one of the passenger trains between Paradeep and Cuttack)
• Keonjhargarh – Puri express (daily)
• Gaya-Chennai express (weekly)
• New Dibrugarh Town-Yesvantpur Express (Weekly) via Moranhat

Extension:

• 8611/8612 Varanasi-Ranchi to Sambalpur via Rourkela (Bi weekly)

Frequency increase:

• 2891/2892 Baripada-Bhubaneswar Express from tri-weekly to six days a week
• 2421/2422 Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express from bi-weekly to tri-weekly

Following is from a report in Telegraph.

Chennai-based Creative Port Development Private Limited today inked a concession agreement with the state government for sharing revenue from a Rs 2187 crore proposed deep-water, all-weather, mechanised port in Balasore.

The company, in December 2006, had signed an MoU with the government to develop the port on the Subernarekha river mouth at Kirtania in Balasore.

The first phase of the port with a handling capacity of 10MTPA has been planned to be commissioned by 2010 and ultimately its capacity would go up to 50MTPA by the 10th year.

As agreed, the company today signed the deal which enables the state to share revenue at the rate of five per cent from first to fifth year, eight per cent from sixth to 10th year, 10 per cent from 11th to 15th year and 12 per cent for the remaining 15 years.

CPDL would enjoy the concession for a period of 30 years, extendable by an additional period of 20 years.

Following is an excerpt from a news report in New Indian Express.

Three major roads will be taken up for development in the first year of the phase-1 programme under Orissa State Road Project (OSRP) with World Bank assistance.

The World Bank has agreed to provide funds for improvement of road infrastructure of about 1,400 km with an estimated cost of Rs 1,480 crore.

While the loan component is Rs 1,175 crore, matching fund from the State will be Rs 305 crore. The project will be implemented in five years.

In the first year, 204-km stretch of road will be taken up for improvement. The three road projects which will be developed include the 99-km Chandbali- Bhadrak-Anandpur road, 70-km stretch of Khariar-Bhawanipatna road and 41-km road from Berhampur to Taptapani.

The State has identified five major roads having a length of 835 km for development in the first phase. Detailed project report (DPR) and economic viability and feasibility study of the projects have been completed.

The 152-km road stretch of Jagatpur-Kendrapara- Chandbali-Bhadrak, 138-km Bhadrak-Anandpur- Karanjia-Tongabilla, 213-km Khariar-Bhawanipatna- Muniguda-Rayagada-Kereda, 202-km stretch Berhampur-JK Puri- Rayagada and 127-km Banarpal-Daspalla- Bhanjanagar-Aska road have been finalised for the first phase.

… The 204-km road stretch, that will be developed in the first year, is passing through 160 villages.

The Revenue Department informed the meeting that notification had been issued to the district collectors for land acquisition. Works Department, the nodal agency for the State Road Project, has planned to develop 294 km of roads in the second year.

The Department will submit the first three road projects to the World Bank for approval and sanction of loan, official sources said.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

Under the PPT mode, the State Government has decided to build a Capital Region Ring Road. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the Empowered Committee on Infrastructure (ECI) chaired by the Chief Secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy on Tuesday.

The proposed ring road will constructed with an aim to lessen pressure on the vehicular traffic movement on Bhubaneswar-Cuttack road. The road will start from Khurda and pass through Bhubaneswar via bypass and touch Nirgundi near Cuttack. The survey work for the project will commence soon.

Keeping the growing industrialisation in view, another road under PPT will be built connecting directly Bhubaneswar to Paradip. It will also help the smooth movement of traffic from Capital to Port City. ILFS will do the necessary survey work.

In order to strengthen the PPT mode, Government has constituted seven cells in different departments like Fisheries and Animal Development, Energy, Panchayat Raj and Information and Technology.

The committee approved five proposals under PPT. In a bid to develop the infrastructure of Berhampur city, Government has decided to build an integrated commercial and residential complex under the banner Gajapati Plaza. Rs 10 crore will be spent to build this project. Government will provide five acre of land for this purpose. All the modern amenities including swimming poll facilities will also be available in the complex. The project work would be entrusted to Forum Project Private Limited. Work on the project would commence in the next 15 days. The ECI also gave its nod to set up a bio-tech farm in an area of 64.86 acres of land near Andharua on the outskirt of Bhubaneswar city. A bio-tech incubation centre will be set up in another 10 acres of land in Andharua also. Five major state-of-the-art infrastructure in the form of modular laboratories, loaded wet laboratories, common equipment facilities and amenities, pilot plant facilities and training centre would be provided in the park.

These facilities in the Biotechnology Research Platform will help to multiply the number of users on free-for -use basis. Selected private developers will be allowed to operate, manage, maintain and market the park in Bio-Tech Pharma and Bio-Informatics -IT related issues.

Business standard reports that Posco near Paradip in Orissa has received a major boost with people of two grampachayats, out of three panchayats affected by the project, writing to the district collector pledging their support to the project. Excerpts:

“For its steel project, Posco had sought 4,004 acres of land spreading over three panchayats — Nuagoan, Gada Kujanga and Dhinkia. Of the total land, 3,566 acres are government land while the remaining 438 acres are privately owned.

However, the company was unable to acquire land due to stiff opposition by the local people to the project even after lapse of two years of signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Orissa government in June 2005 and issue of 4/1 notification for land acquisition in May 2006.

The recent submission by the village committees of Nuagaon and Gada Kujanga to the Jagatsinghpur district collector, pledging their support to the project, has brightened up the prospect of its establishment, pointed out an official of the district administration.

The two panchayats account for 238 acres, out of 438 acres of private land slated to be acquired for the project. Similarly, of the 471 families likely to be displaced by the project, 275 families belong to these panchayats.

Further boosting up the company’s moral 40 betel vine owners, who are among the most affected villagers, have recently surrendered their betel vines and accepted compensation while 250-300 others are waiting to surrender their vines.

In their letters, the respective village committees have expressed their willingness to part with land for the project and offered their participation in the peripheral development work to be undertaken by the government, the sources added.

However, the Dhinkia panchayat, which is the nerve centre of anti-Posco movement, is yet to reconcile though fissures have appeared in stitching up a united front by the people of this panchayat against the company. Seventy-two families from Patna village under Dhinkia gram panchayat have offered their land to the project.

Similarly, the people of Gobindpur village under this gram panchayat pledged their support to the project in September 2007, and invited the district collector to visit them to discussion on land acquisition and compensation packages.

The growing support for the Posco plant was further demonstrated when over 5,000 people attended a rally and public meeting under the leadership of local MLA and senior BJD leader Damodar Rout at Balitutha, the entry point to the troubled site on November 1.

This was the first show of strength by the pro-project groups whose support to the project was often muted by the vocal and often violent opposition mounted the anti-project brigade in the area. To counter the pro-Posco rally, the project opponents had organised a demonstration just across the Balitutha bridge. However, they were hugely outnumbered with about 1,000 people participating in it.

But the leaders of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), spearheading the agitation against the proposed plant, are willing to accept defeat just on the basis of this headcount.

Most of the people who participated in the pro-Posco rally were outsiders who were transported to the venue by the ruling party, says Abhaya Sahoo, the president of PPSS.

“We will continue our fight and not allow the company to set up its plant here,” he added.“

This looks positive.
Just to summarize

• GadaKujang and Nuagaon are supporting the project.
• Some villages in Dhinkia Panchayat seem to be favouring POSCO like Patna village and Gobindpur village.
• 5000 people supported POSCO in the rally, but , 1000 went against it.
• 72 families from Patna village have already offered land.
• This was the first show of strength by the pro-project groups whose support to the project was often muted by the vocal and often violent opposition mounted the anti-project brigade in the area

Pioneer reports that Ersama MLA and former Minister Damodar Rout on Sunday has initiated a joint political move in favour of the Posco project proposed near Paradip in his constituency.

Excerpts

“Under no particular party’s banner, political leaders met in Jagatsinghpur to chart out a strategy for a show of strength with a slogan Aage maati pare party, literally meaning land first, party later. Presiding over the meeting, Rout harped on the fact that 85 per cent people in Kujang tehsil, where the South Korean steel major wants to set up its greenfield project, were supporting the 12-million-tonne per annum plant. As they are not united, their voice is cowed down by a handful of agitators. Rout sought to prove the point that the anti-Posco brigade was a minority group making tall claims. It was decided to organise a mass meeting on Tuesday at Balitutha, which leaders cutting across party lines would address. Rout’s move follows Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s instructions to him to extend his support for the Posco project in his constituency.

Rout, in his turn, has asked the Jagatsinghpur district authorities to help in smooth conduct of the Tuesday meeting, to which Collector Pramod Kumar Mehrada and SP RP Singh have reportedly agreed.

More than 60 representatives from various political parties participated in the deliberations on Sunday. A few of them suggested to organise the mass meeting at a later stage, but Rout said, “Strike the iron when it is hot.”

A section of political observers, however, feels that there may be a scuffle between the anti- and pro-Posco supporters on the day”

Following is an excerpt from New Indian Express on this.

… Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has demanded that the royalty be fixed on ad valorem basis.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Chief Minister said that the manner in which the Centre is going to revise the royalty, the State will be a loser. The State has already sustained a huge loss because of two-year delay in the revision.

He urged the Prime Minister to compensate the revenue loss of the State and delete the provision of adjusting the cess collected by the State during payment of royalty. As per the Supreme Court ruling, the collection of cess by the State for the development of the people in the mining areas is justified, he argued.

Under the new ‘hybrid formula,’ the State will get Rs 10 more per tonne of coal which is nothing given the delay in the revision of royalty, he said.

As per the Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, the Centre is bound to revise royalty on coal and other minerals every three years. The Act provides that the State should be compensated accordingly for the delay in revision of royalty.

The latest revision was made on August 1 after five years, the Chief Minister reminded and urged the Prime Minister to compensate the State for the last two years.

I wonder if Naveen is referring to the supreme court judgment regarding Vedanta where the supreme court asks Vedanta to give 5% of its profits for spending towards tribal development and environmental safe guards.

Bhubaneswar has recorded an appreciable increase in income tax collections. Economic times reports that personal income tax increased by 30% this year. Excerpts:

” A similar trend was seen in Bhubaneshwar. While the corporate tax collections from this zone declined by 11.43% to Rs 584 crore, personal income tax collections grew by 29.62%.”

It must be added that corporate tax collection decreased by 11.5%. Something to analyze.

Kalinga times reports that a new squad has been formed to check the theft of minerals from rich regions in Orissa. Excerpts:

… Orissa government has finally decided to constitute a special enforcement squad to conduct frequent raids to check theft and illegal transportation of various minerals in different parts of the State.

The decision about formation of the special squad was taken at a review meeting organised by the Steel and Mines Department of the State government here on Wednesday.

The squad, to be named State Mining Enforcement Squad, will be headed by a Mining Department official. It will also have an official of the Forest Department and 12 security personnel.

The squad will be put in place within a month, the meeting decided.

Steel and Mines Minister Padmanabha Behera who presided over the meeting has requested the Forest and Homes Departments to depute their staff for the squad.

In fact, it took the Steel and Mines Department seven months to take a formal decision on the formation of the special squad.

In a statement issued after a similar review meeting held in February this year, the Department had announced that it would constitute a squad to check smuggling of minerals.

Smuggling of minerals has been growing in the State in the recent years.

A total of 322 persons were booked by the Mines Department from April 1, 2006 to January 31 this year and fine amount of Rs 3.25 crore was collected from them.

Besides, 191 vehicles used in illegal transportation of different minerals were also seized during the period.”

I hope this does not get lost in bureaucratic hassles.

Following is an excerpt from an IANS report that appears in many places including in Earth Times.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed in principle to provide loan assistance of Rs.1.2 billion for the Orissa Integrated Agriculture and Water Management project.

Monich Yakoyama, ADB’s senior water management specialist for South Asian countries, …

Yakoyama, who held discussions with senior state officials here today, said that the expert team was studying different small irrigation projects, watershed projects, canal systems and water panchayats and people’s participation in water management.The project plans to involve the maximum number of self-help groups to partner water management for increasing agricultural production.The ADB will release $180 million in the first phase and would supervise implementation of the water management projects on a regular basis. Special care would be taken to rehabilitate families who would be displaced during execution of the irrigation projects.

In an editorial page article in Indian Express, Ila Patnaik says the following about Orissa.

We examine data on projects under implementation in various states in the CMIE Capex data base. We compare data for June 2007 with June 2002 to assess how a state has fared on investment compared to its previous performance. … Orissa is also a major gainer, particularly over the last five years. It went from rank 8 to rank 2 over the last five years. While the Indian average for projects under implementation on a per capita basis grew by 93 per cent, Orissa gained by 381 per cent over the last five years to reach Rs 61,811 of investment per capita.

The article also has the following table.

The orissa.gov.in site has a page on PPP (private-public partnership) which contains the Orissa draft PPP policy and a list of projects in Orissa planned to be funded through PPP. Following are excerpts from a recent report in Telegraph.

The Orissa government is planning to invest Rs 125,000 crore in 36 infrastructure projects to be taken up under the private-public-partnership programme.

…Under the programme, the state government will leverage its financial resources with that of the Centre, to prepare a shelf of projects. These will be taken forward through a transparent selection process. There will also be viability gap funding, if the projects are initially loss-making.

The policy will also create Orissa Infrastructure Development Fund with a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore. Projects that are part of the programme include roads, bridges, ports and harbours, airports, airstrips, inland container depots, industrial parks, special economic zones and townships.

“We have already entered into agreements with IL&FS and PricewaterhouseCoopers, who will be the consultants for these projects. A few more will be empanelled soon,” said Parag Gupta, special secretary of the state secretariat’s public-private-partnership cell. …

Sources said IL&FS was picked as a consultant because of its joint venture with state-run Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation for the Bhubaneswar Integrated Road Network project. PwC is also a consultant for several road projects. The state has also signed an agreement with the Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (IDFC) in this regard. IDFC is funding some projects in association with Nabard.

“Two more consultants, including Ernst and Young and another Calcutta-based firm, will be enrolled soon,” the sources said.

The empanelled agencies will help identify projects that need to be taken up, prepare pre-feasibility and detailed project reports. They will then hand the reports over to respective departments.

Some of the projects being taken up are the Capital Region Ring Road, to span 98km, and the Bhubaneswar-Paradip Road, a 90km stretch. Each of the projects will cost around Rs 700 crore. They will be executed by the state public works department.

Other projects include sector-specific infotech SEZs, which will cost around Rs 352 crore and an IT & corporate tower in Bhubaneswar to be set up for Rs 146 crore.