___________

Update: New Indian Express reports that Air Deccan has plans to connect Bhubaneswar with Tirupati.

Kudos: I traveled several legs on Indigo (Bhubaneswar-Hydearabad-Bangalore, Bangalore-Kochi, Kochi-Goa, Goa-Hyderabad-Kolkata). All of its flights were in time and some reached destinations before time. Excellent service. Free food is not given but one can buy food on-board. Very happy with this airline and am  glad to see they will be connecting Bhubaneswar with Mumbai and Kolkata from Jan 29th. My best wishes to this airline.

mini-Kudos: Used the site http://www.ezeego1.co.in/ to book ticket two days before a flight. They were offering great deals.

Mega disaster: I had booked Bhubaneswar-Bangalore flight on Jetlite through a travel agent from Bhubaneswar, who I thought I knew well. When I called Jetlite the day before the travel (a) first they told me that my reservation was canceled because the travel agent did not do something in time. (b) later I found out that they had just canceled the Bhubaneswar -Bangalore flight altogether and neither the airlines nor the travel agent informed me about that.

So-so: I am familiar with three main travel sites for booking tickets in India.

• http://www.ezeego1.co.in/: Has great deals. Does not seem to accept international credit cards.
• http://makemytrip.co.in/makemytrip/MMTHome.do: Accepts international credit cards. Has software issues: When I booked a ticket with me as the booking person and my wife as the traveler it booked the ticket in my name and I ended up having two tickets on my name on the same flight. Great customer service over email and phone in correcting mistakes. It did not inform me about the cancellation of Kolkata-Bhubaneswar flight. But after I told them, they issued an immediate refund.
• http://www.cleartrip.com/: Does not seem to accept international credit cards.

Disappointment: Indian canceled Kolkata-Bhubaneswar flight that I was booked on  and I had to make alternative arrangements just 2-3 days before my travel date.

Dealing with a local Bhubaneswar travel agent with office in Jayadev Vihar: I thought since I knew this person well, he will give me better service. It was somewhat of a disappointment; but I am not sure how much I can blame the agent for this. Following are the good and bad parts.  (a)  Jetlite claims that  the main travel agent (Eastern travels) that this travel agent went through did not do some thing in time so they canceled my booking. The local travel agent (Orissa travels) responded that Jetlite often finds flimsy reasons to do such cancellation. I don’t know whom to believe. (b) His deals for a Kerala package was Rs 22000 (instead of the Rs 23,800 that I paid to the Bangalore agent)  but involved worse hotels. (c) Did not inform me about Jetlite flight being canceled; but did promptly inform me about the Indian flight that got canceled. (c) While makemytrip refunded me completely for the Indian flight that got canceled this travel agent says Indian only gave him a coupon to be used in 1 year. There is no way I can use this coupon.  (d) The tickets in Indigo that I bought from this agent were all fine. (e) Paying him for the tickets was convenient as his people came and picked up the money from my parents. They also refunded to my parents, albeit not so promptly.

Travel agents on the net: Came across two very good travel agents to arrange my Kerala trip and my Goa trip. (Did have to spend time in finding them. Also, may be I was lucky.) They both gave good deals and things went pretty well. I sent money to their ICICI account from mine; it was easy and quick. The two agents and the various companies involved in these trips were:

• http://www.malabarholidays.indiatourism.com: Mr. Shekar based in Bangalore 09448230450 / 09343835483 (Kerala Trip) is the agent I communicated with initially and Tours India International, Cochin, really took care of the reservations locally.
  • Avenue Regent Kochi: Wonderful hotel, will stay again here if I am in Kochi.
  • Backwater Resort, Kumarakom:  Decent resort in Kumarakom. Will stay here if in Kumarakom.
  • NAS group house boat: Not as great looking as the other house boats. (It may not have been a NAS group house boat, but a temporary rental.) Had a deck which many don’t have and view from the deck is even better. A/C control not in the room so the night spent was not as nice as it got cold and noisy and there was no way to turn it off. The overall experience was marvelous, but next time I will make sure about the particular boat I am in and solve the a/c issue beforehand.

• www.amchogoa.com and http://www.samsantravels.com: Summaiya.91-98694 25430 (Goa hotels)
  • Longuinhos Beach Resort Colva, Goa: Right on the beach. Nice people. Great restaurant. A/C in the room old style; one has to turn it off and on by hand.

Indian Railways: Was able to buy e-ticket on the net using International credit card. Could get 3 a/c Kolkata-Bhubaneswar  ticket in Coromondal 2 days before the trip. (A/C chair car tickets in Janashtabdi were not available. But as my wife told me, regular sleeper tickets are better than a/c chair car seats as one can sit as well as sleep on a sleeper ticket.)

Jet airways: Unlike the disastrous experience with its subsidiary Jetlite, the Bangkok-Kolkata-Bangkok flights in Jet airways were very good. The food was great, the entertainment available in the seat back sets were very good, the flights were on time and the tickets were the least expensive in that route. I hope they fix the problems with Jetlite asap; otherwise the negative impression that Jetlite will make will harm the overall brand name.

Lessons:

• Have an ICICI account. It is very useful in sending money to make reservations.
• Have access to rupee based credit card as many airlines in India do not accept international credit cards.
• Avoid small local travel agents for out-of-state travel. They have less clout, so they may not be able to do the best for you, even if they want to.
• Avoid Jetlite and Indian.
• Patronize Indigo.
• For Kolkata-Bhubaneswar leg, good old Indian Railways is the most reliable means.
• For hotel rooms make sure what kind of a/c it has. Does the a/c have an automatic temperature control or you have to manually turn it on and off.
• For visits to particular part of India look for travel agents in that part of India.  You may get lucky and come across good ones.
• For air travel within India check out the three sites http://www.ezeego1.co.in/, http://makemytrip.co.in/makemytrip/MMTHome.do and http://www.cleartrip.com/  and see who has the best deal.
• Airlines change their schedules frequently. Check often.

Its schedule is as follows:

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 report in the Telegraph.

Howrah is one of the 22 stations that the railway ministry wants to upgrade to global standards. Six stations — including Howrah, New Delhi, Patna and Bhubaneswar — will be taken up in the first phase.

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 New Indian Express.

The Ong dam project at Pujaripali in Padampur block of Bargarh district has received the much awaited environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forest(MoEF).

… Initially estimated to cost Rs 305 crore, the project was sanctioned by the Central Water Commission in September 2000.

The revised cost of the project will be nearly Rs 500 crore and this has been posed before the World Bank for funding under the Orissa Water Resources Improvement Project, official sources said.

The Water Resources Department has proposed to construct a reservoir on river Ong, a tributary of Mahanadi and the project envisages to irrigate about 30,000 hectares drought-prone areas of Bargarh and Balangir districts.

The submergence at full reservoir level is 5,100 hectares out of which, 167 hectares of neighbouring Chhattisgarh will be affected.

While 32 villages will affected by the project, 10 will be fully submerged.

As inter-state issues are involved, a public hearing was conducted in Chhattisgarh on September 11 and the willingness of people for the project has been communicated to the Centre.

Update: Pioneer reports that ‘"The NHAI has agreed to provide funds immediately to take up the widening and strengthening the NH-215 from Panikoeli to Rajmunda. Rs 96 crore will be spent for this purpose. The tender process for the four laning would start soon."

The ECOR time table is at http://eastcoastrailway.gov.in/File/ECoR_Time_Table.pdf. As of today the time table there is the one from 1st Dec 2006 – 30th Jun 2007.

(See http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/?p=96 for other expansion plans of Paradeep port.)

The following is from the PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=33421. (Based on this Orissa will fall behind quite a bit: Only 2000kms of new lines
 none of the major new lines in Orissa, such as Khurda-Balangir, will get completed during the 11th plan. The states where the freight corridor will run and the states with a lot of narrow gauge lines will surge forward.)

In order to carry additional freight and passenger traffic in future, Railways have on hand 272 track capacity works, which on completion would add 20,852 kilometers to the Broad Gauge system.  The estimated throwforward cost of these works is approximately Rs. 55,000 crore.

A substantial amount of traffic moves on the High density routes viz. the ones which connect the four metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkatta, and the Delhi – Gaulhati route.  Railways have already announced construction of two Dedicated Freight Corridors between JNPT-Tughlakabad (1483 kms) and Sonenagar-Ludhiana, (to be later extended to the deep sea port of Kolkatta) (1279 kms) at a cost of more than Rs. 28,000 crores to give relief to two of the densely saturated routes viz. Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata routes.  In addition, feasibility studies have been ordered on four other corridors – (i) North – South (Delhi-Chennai); (ii) East – West (Mumbair – Kolkotta); (iii) South – East (Vijayawada – Kharagpur ) and (iv) South – South (Chennai – Goa).

In addition, Railway proposes to augment its track capacity in XI Plan by 15,500 kilometers, including 2000 kilometer of new lines, 3500 kilometers of doubling and 10,000 kilometers of gauge conversion.

The revenue earning freight traffic in the XI Five Year Plan period is expected to increase from 728 million tonnes in 2006-07 to 1100 million tonnes in 2011-12.  The corresponding freight output is expected to increase from 475 billion ton kilometers in 2006-07 (prov.) to 707 billion ton kilometers in 2011-12.  In order to cater to the projected freight traffic, it is expected that 62000 wagons would be required during the XI Plan.  Railways will also require to induct 1800 electric and 1800 diesel locomotives for carrying the projected traffic in the XI plan.  In addition to enhance the capacity of the existing diesel and electric locomotive manufacturing units, Railways are also going in for setting up a diesel locomotive factory at Marhowra and electric loco factory at Madhepura which will produce 150 and 120 locos per year respectively.

Since capacity augmentation takes time, Railways have taken immediate steps to enhance the throughput by increasing the carrying capacity of wagons by 6 tonnes on most of the routes and by 8 tonnes on selected routes and also strengthen the track, bridges and allied structures.  In addition, 28 heavy mineral routes with over 6900 route kilometers have been further identified for implementation of 25 tonne Axle load.  Also on selected routes, double stack containers trains have been permitted to further enhance the throughput per train.

Railways also plan to induct wagons of better design, higher capacity, longer life and low on maintenance.

The passenger traffic in the XI Five Year Plan is expected to increase from 6242 million passengers in 2006-07 (RE) to 8400 million in 2011-12.  The correspondence passenger output is expected to increase from 700 billion passenger kilometers to 880 billion passenger kilometers.

In order to cater to this increase in traffic, it is expected that 22500 coaches would be required  during the XI Five Year Plan,  implying a yearly requirement of 4500 coaches.  In order to meet this requirement , the production capacities of the existing units –integral Coach Factory, Prembur  and Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthanla – are being enhanced to 1500 and 1400 coaches per annum respectively from the  present capacity of 1000 coaches per annum each.  Further, a new coach factory is also being planned to be set up at Rai Bareily to bridge the shortfall in requirement and production capacities.

Railways have constructed a total of 4084 kilometers of track in the last three years.  The details are as under :–

This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri R.Velu in written reply to a question in the Lok  Sabha today.

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

Giving safety and passenger comfort the utmost priority, the regional office of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has rolled out well-knit packages for pilgrims and holiday-makers for the first time to major tourist places in the country.

… The new packages, however, do not include ghat sections. Nonetheless IRCTC has left no room for complaints. ‘‘We have even posted a manager who would look into the wellbeing of the people round the clock,’’ he said.

The packages include a week-long tour to North covering New Delhi, Jammu, Haridwar and Risikesh. The cost per adult has been fixed at Rs 11,800. Similarly, the ‘explore Rajasthan’ tour package, taking travellers to all known places, has been priced at Rs 17,050. They include expenses like on and off board catering, board and travelling.

Optimum return of the money spent would be the USP of the plans. The third package called ‘ Southern Splendours I and II — covering places like Bangalore, Mysore, Ooty and Hassan among others — would cost between Rs 10,250 and Rs 10,650.

In the ensuing months, IRCTC would also offer travel plans to Madurai , Rameswaram and Kanyakumari. Likewise, tour packages to Darjelling , Gangtok and Peling are also on the cards. It is also contemplating to offer customised packages.

Meanwhile, IRCTC’s budget hotel project in Bhubaneswar would start soon, having received nod from the State Government. It will come up in front of the Railway station. IRCTC has also acquired about five acres at Bhabakundaleswar near Satapada at Chilika Lake for a similar project.

Mohanty said, plans for the budget hotels in Cuttack, Puri and Visakhapatnam are awaiting the Railway Board’s clearance.

Dharitri has a nice article on the golden future of Dhamara. Following are some of the major projects involving Dhamara. My prediction is that in 10-15 years the Chandbali-Dhamara-Bhitarakanika area will be a beautiful metropolitan area  next to a national park. (See top right in this map.)

1. L & T and the Tatas are building a port in Dhamara.
2. Central government is upgrading Dhamara fishing jetty  to an international fishing harbor.
3. Bharati Shipyard and Appejay group plan to build a shipyard in Dhamara.
4. A railway line connecting Dhamara and Bhadrakh will be build.
5. Good roads will definitely connect Dhamara to nearby National Highways.
6. Dhamara will be a major stop in National Waterway 5.
7. Dhamara is next to the Bhitarakanika National Park (more)

Following is from the PIB http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=33328.

In some stretches entrusted to National Highways Authority of India, maintenance of trees is included as a part of ongoing Operation & Maintenance contracts. The details are as under:

(i) NH-8   :           Jaipur  bypass

(ii) NH-79A: Kishangarh – Kanwaliyas-Jajaro Ka Khera section (km. 0 to km. 35) &   NH-79 (km. 15 to km. 163.90).                             

(iii)   NH-76   :    (Udaipur-Chittorgarh (km. 113.825 to km. 220.00).

(iv) NH-5      :       Bhubaneswar-Jagatpur-Chandikhole (km. 0 to km. 61).

Following are extracted from a report in the Pioneer.

• the State Commerce and Transport Department, in its sanction order-29753, dated May 30, 1970, had allotted 3, 793.21 acres in the first phase and 2285.23 acres in the second phase to the Paradip Port Project. Most of the lands were obtained from Sandhakuda, Bijayachandrapur, Balijhari and Bhitaragara villages, under Kujang Tehsil. According to the official sources, about 6,889 acres of land were supplied to the Paradip Port Trust.
• The State Government had provided 62.19 acres of land to the Paradeep Phosphate Ltd, which is a fertiliser plant that started its project in 1982. The PPL had acquired 405 acres of private lands from Bhitaragada village on its own.
• … in Paradeep-Cuttack railway line 137 acres of land were acquired from the Bhitaragada village.
• Kujang Tehsil had about 1,500 acres of Government land in the Musadiha area that was provided to the Oswal Fertiliser Plant in the year 1995-96. The plant had also purchased about 500 acres of private land from the local people.
• … in 2000 Indian Oil Corporation had purchased 3,300 acres of private land from the local people of 17 villages for its refinery project, which was to be set up on the outskirts of Paradip but the project is yet to come.
• for much-hyped Haridaspur-Paradip Railway Project, widening of the NH-5 and recent expansion of Cuttack-Paradip State Highway, thousands of acres of both Government and private lands have been acquired from Kujang Tehsil.
• Essar, the 6 million tonnes steel plant project, moves for the land acquisition in Paradip and the project needs about 1,950 acres of land. The State Government has already given 350 acres of land to the plant. It will procure the remaining required land from private land.
• Posco has shown a demand of about 4,004 acres of land in Dhinkia, Gadakujang and Nuagaon villages for its steel plant and port project. The State Government has given assurance and has provided Posco most of the encroached Government and forestlands. The rest of the required land would be purchased from private landowners.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard. (Thanks to Deba Nayak for the pointer.)

… The company had signed an memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Orissa government on December 2006. The port is proposed near the mouth of Subernarekha river and is estimated to cost Rs 2,000 crore.

According to state commerce minister Jaynarayan Misra, the company has made progress after the signing of the MoU. It has applied to the Centre for environmental clearance of the port project and has applied to the railway ministry for sanction of rail link.

However, the exact date of starting the construction work of the project can be known after the signing of the concession agreement, he said.

According to the provisions, the concession agreement needs to be signed within six months of the Mou. However, there has been a delay of about 4 months.

The company has sought 1,018 acre land for the port and 1,300 acres for the rail corridor. CPDPL will pay land premium as per the rates provided in the Industrial Policy Resolution-2007. However, the government is yet to provide any land to the company.

The minister said, the land acquisition for the project may not face much problem as the displacement of people will be minimal. Only eight families of the village Chaumukh will be displaced due to the project.

Official sources said, Kirtania port will come up on Build-Own-Operate-Share-Transfer (BOOST) mode. While the concession period will be 30 years, the government will have the power to extend it.