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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

Update: It could n’t come up on the 26th (item 17) as the Lok Sabha was adjourned after the Railway budget. It was scheduled to come up on the 27th (page 4), but  the Lok Sabha was again adjourned following protests by NDA and others raising the issue of the farmer’s plight.  Its scheduled to come up again on the 28th. But again the house was adjourned till the next day just about when this item was supposed to come.

The following is from http://164.100.24.207/lobtext/14/XIII/RLOB26.2.2008.pdf. (Our earlier coverage of this was in http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/?p=445)

Following is an excerpt from Statesman on this.

State tourism and excise minister Mr Debi Prasad Mishra today declared that Talasari beach, one of the most famous tourist spots of Balasore district will be developed as a special tourism zone.  ..

… The infrastructure will be developed for the middle and high-middle class tourists in mind, the official sources maintained.

The minister informed that a ‘Sea Festival’ will be organized in third week of April for publicity and creation of awareness on the tourist spot. For the maiden year, the festival will be organized for about three or five days, the minister said adding that tourism and excise department will support it. The sports and youth affairs department will organize a beach sports competition on the occasion.

See also the article and the pictures in tathya.in.

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

The public carrier has decided to reintroduce the Kolkata-Bangalore flight via Bhubaneswar and Chennai on February 18. A brand new Airbus 319 would be introduced on this lucrative sector.

… The new flight will boast of business class. It will operate on all the days of the week and would leave Bangalore at 9.30 in the morning and arrive here at 1 pm and in Kolkata at 2.35 pm. It will reach Chennai at 10.15 and take off at 11.05 am.

In the return direction, the flight will take off from Kolkata at 3.25 pm and arrive here at 4.20 pm. It will leave at 5 pm and arrive in Chennai at 6.55 pm and depart at 7.45 pm. The plane will touch down in Bangalore at 8.30 pm.

This is a tricky issue. If these parts are taken out of SER and put in ECOR then SER will become very small. Also, ECOR then has to give up part of the Vizag division as people in that area of Andhra Pradesh have similar complaints with respect to ECOR.

The above article mentions a list of other places where new ports may come up and the companies that have shown interest in them. They are:

• Barunei muhana, Kendrapada: Interest shown by Mittal Steel, Adhunik Metallic and SPI infrastructure.
• Inchudi, Balasore: Interest shown by IL&FS and  SSL energy.
• Palur, Ganjam: Interest shown by Future metals.
• Bahuda Muhana, Ganjam: Interest shown by Mehta and Company

It says that among the shortlisted 13 locations for ports the chances are not good for Chandipur, Bahabalpur and Chudamani and if ports come up in the remaining 10 then Orissa will have the second largest number of ports.

Following is an excerpt from a column by S. Aiyar in Times of India.

Roads are not, of course, the only things that matter – other rural projects and policies matter a great deal too. But connectivity enhances the value of every other rural investment, since it empowers people through improved mobility and access. People can more easily buy agricultural inputs and sell their produce. Children can go more easily to schools, cattle can more easily get veterinary help, and the sick can get to health centres. Remote areas have, by definition, the worst connectivity. They are among the poorest and slowest-growing, but accelerate when given connectivity.

Roads can incubate a thousand small businesses, and can convert villages into towns. Government staff are much more willing to be posted to places with good connectivity, so roads improve administration. Rural productivity cannot be high without roads, but can be very high with them.

… Gulati says that studies by IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute) in China, Vietnam and some African countries point to the same conclusion – rural roads do more for growth and poverty mitigation than virtually anything else.

A recent IFPRI paper by Fan, Gulati and Thorat estimated the impact of different government programmes on rural growth and poverty reduction in recent decades. The poverty-reduction data for the 1990s are given in the accompanying table. Road investment gave the biggest bang for buck, followed by agricultural R&D, with education lagging some way behind. Subsidies on fertiliser, credit and power achieved rather little.

For every million rupees spent, roads raised 335 people above the poverty line, and R&D 323. Every million rupees spent on education reduced poverty by 109 people, and on irrigation by 67 people. The lowest returns came from subsidies that are the most popular with politicians – subsidies on credit (42 people), power (27 people) and fertilisers (24 people).

Exactly the same picture emerged when the researchers estimated the agricultural growth impact of these factors. Roads and agricultural R&D contributed by far the most to growth. Lower down came investment in education and irrigation. At the bottom came subsidies for credit, power and fertilisers.

… For decades, rural roads in India were neglected by most states. Besides, rural employment schemes, starting with Maharashtra’s Employment Gurantee Scheme in the 1970s, created the illusion that durable rural roads could be built with labour-intensive techniques. In practice labour-intensive roads proved not durable at all, and those built in the dry season vanished in the monsoons.

This finally changed with the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) launched in 2000. This, for the first time, ordained mechanised techniques to provide high-quality, all-weather roads to 1.6 lakh rural habitations without pucca roads. It also upgraded roads that had collapsed. Panchayats were made responsible for maintenance. Conversations with experts suggest that this is one of the best-functioning programmes in rural development.

… Let me conclude by recalling what economist Robert Chambers said back in the 1970s. "If I had money, I would use it to build roads. If I had more money, I would build more roads. If I had still more money, I would build still more roads."

Following is from http://rc.orissa.gov.in/writereaddata/sublinkimages/167.doc.

PRESS RELEASE

January 30, 2008

Reg:   Submission of Memorandum by the House Committee of OLA to the Hon’ble Minister of Railways on 30.01.2008.

        The members of House Committee on Railways under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble Speaker, Orissa Legislative Assembly, accompanied by the Members of Parliament submitted a Memorandum to the Hon’ble Union Minister of Railways in his office chamber. In the said meeting, Chairman, Railway Board and other high officials of Ministry of Railways were present.

          Orissa is on the threshold of major industrial upsurge and first progressing towards rapid industrialization. The large number of MoUs have been signed with several companies for setting up Steel Plants. Similarly, MoUs have been signed for setting up Alumina Plants and Super Thermal Power Houses. Several ports are also coming up along the Orissa coast. It is expected that additional generation of traffic will be staggering 200 to 250 MTPA by 2016.

          In the background of such massive transportation requirement, the rail infrastructure require urgent strengthening and expansion.

           Hence, the committee has given a proposal for enhancement of allocation of funds for the six ongoing projects to the tune of Rs.655 crore, for electrification of two Sections for Rs.50 crore, for gauge conversion Rs.125 crore, for doubling Rs.500 crore, altogether totaling to Rs.1330 crore, in the ensuing Railway budget.

–        2 –

          Hon’ble Railway Minister gave a patient hearing to the various demands raised by the House Committee and assured to look into the various proposals positively. He further assured that additional funds will be given for the projects in the execution stage for their early completion.

          On Puri-Konark project, Hon’ble Minister suggested that if land can be provided by the State Government, the project can immediately be taken up by the Government of India keeping in view the huge tourist potential of the area.

          The Committee also requested Hon’ble Minister to sanction nine new railway lines for which survey has already been completed. Hon’ble Minister assured that sanction of viable projects will be processed for approval of Planning Commission. The Committee also put forth demand for introduction of new train services, extension of selected existing services, increasing frequency of popular trains, improving quality of onboard services and amenities at the major Railway stations in the state.

          The Hon’ble Minister, Railways directed the Railway officials to examine the proposals given by the House Committee on Railways of OLA.

Various news reports mention some additional details. For example, New Indian Express reports that the committee asked for the following:

Lanjigarh Road-Junagarh- Rs 120 crore, Khurda Road- Balangir-Rs 150 crore, Haridaspur-Paradip-Rs 175 crore, Angul-Dubri- Sukinda Road-Rs 75 crore,Talcher-Bimalagarh-Rs 75 crore, Daitari-Banspani-Rs 60 crore.

Electrification of Kharagpur-Nimpura- Bhubaneswar and Bhubaneswar-Kottavalasa lines-Rs 50 crore, gauge conversion of Rupsa- Bangiriposi and Naupada- Gunupur lines-Rs 50 crore and Rs 75 crore respectively and doubling of Titlagarh- Lanjigarh Road-Rs 500 crore.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Hindu.

… gauge conversion of the 90-km-long Nuapada-Gunupur railway is to be finished," said A K Goyal, general manager, East Coast Railway here on Wednesday.

The gauge conversion work was going on very rapidly and it would be completed by the end of March, he said. In 2007-08, the Railway Ministry has provided Rs 25 crore for this project. The ministry has targetted to extend the line up to rayagada in the next phase.

The 118-year-old railway line was established by the then Maharaja of Paralakhemundi, Krushna Chandra Gajapati in 1889 for his personal use. The narrow gauge railway line was handed over to the Railway Ministry in 1949. Since then the people of southern Orissa have been demanding its upgradation.

Apart from the Nuapada-Gunupur line, the ministry has also targeted to complete the doubling of the railway lines in 15.3 km length Khurdha-Delang, a part of the Khurdha-Puri line, 12 km Cuttack-Barang and Titilagarh-Kesinga, a part of the 47-km long Lanjigarh-Titilagarh railway line by the end of march next, goyal said.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer on this.

The Puri railway station would be expanded and the platforms would be laid afresh to facilitate easy access to passengers to board the train. This apart the Puri Railway Station washing lines would also be developed and the station would be given a new look with an estimated cost of over Rs 100 15 crore and the station would be designed in the lines of the Jagannath Temple, he said.

The incomplete Puri-Khurdha road double tracking would be completed soon, he said. The Ministry was ready to allocate 50 per cent of the total cost of the new tracks to Konark if the State agrees to bear the rest, the Minister informed.