Update: The complete Shilpayana supplement is at http://www.thesamaja.com/slide.htm.(Thanks to kalahandia for this pointer.)

• Odisha industrial policy and OIEPO.
• Odisha Tourism.
• Odisha geographical location and its bounties.
• Fast progress of Information Technology in Odisha.
• Power reform in Odisha.
• Mineral resources of Odisha.
• Cement and Sugar in Odisha.
• Private investment encouraged in health care in Odisha.
• Industrialization of Odisha.
• Steel and aluminum in Odisha.
• Power situation in Odisha.
• Getting approvals to set up industry in Odisha; SLSWC and HLC.
• Odisha transportation situation.
• New ports to come up in Odisha.
• 146 proposals cleared by state level single window clearance (SLSWC).

Following is an excerpt from a Business Standard report.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) plans to privatise 15 out of 40 non-operational airports across the country on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis to make them function again.

“Out of 40 non-operational airports, 15 have the potential to operate and we have planned to give the airports to private developers to operate it for a concession period,” said a top AAI official, who did not wish to be identified.

The airports to be given to private companies are in Rajasthan, Orissa, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and north-eastern states. ..

As per the AAI page at http://www.aai.aero/allAirports/nonop_airports.jsp the non-operational AAI airport in Odisha is in Jharsuguda. This is the good news for Odisha. The slightly bad news is that the Chakulia airport in Jharkhand is probably also in that list. It is 67 kms from both Jamshedpur and Kharagpur and about 80 kms from Baripada. If that takes off the proposed airport in Rasgovindpur (in Mayurbhanj) will not happen soon. But overall from the tri-state perspective Chakulia is a better location.

Following is from its page http://book.goindigo.in/skylights/cgi-bin/skylights.cgi.

From my personal experience Indigo is the best airlines in India.

The following table (except the last three rows) is from an Odisha government source.  All the amounts are in crores of rupees.

The last three rows are filled by me. The rest is from an Odisha government document.

The above numbers are in Crores of Rupees. In the above "C" denotes Capital, "F" denotes Capital Fund and "R" denotes RVNL funding. The notation ** above means that data is missing.

Now lets do a projection to the future.

Following is from Dharitri.

The above article writes about the analysis of ex-MP Braja Tripathy. His main complaint is that Indian Railways makes 10% of its revenue (about 6000 crores) from Odisha but has spent only 2% of the budget in Odisha; 836 crores out of 41,426 crores. He also says that in 2008-09 the Rail budget had 948.34 crores for Odisha and since then while the revenue and planned expenses have increased 10-15%, Odisha’s rail budget has decreased by 115 crores. 

Mr. Tripathy has a very good point. We made similar points in our page http://kbkrail.orissalinks.com/ and in the article http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/1550.

However, I partly agree with the comment made by Mr. Prasanna Mishra; this year’s allotment of 120 crores for the Khurda-Balangir line is pretty good. The Odisha government must facilitate land acquisition so that the full 120 crores is spent this year. That way it can ask for more in the next budget and possibly get it. Otherwise next year Khurda-Balangir will get a smaller allocation and we will be back to square one.

(All numbers above are in Crores of Rupees. Cap means Capital expenditure and RVN means expenditure through Rail Vikas Nigam.)

2006 had a big allocation of 155.6 crores just for Daitari-Bansapani for its completion. With that done, in 2007 Lalu really screwed [pardon my language!] Odisha with respect to the new lines by having a total budget on new lines and gauge conversion of only 132 crores. (There may have been another 20 crores in that budget in the green book.) Things picked up a bit in 2008 and 2009 and finally now, it is at a decent state.

Now we must make sure that by next year there is approval of Buramra-Chakulia and increase in the allocation for all the other projects that are not completed or about to be completed. A sample projected budget (for new lines) that we should aim for the next seven years is as follows.

Other lines that are mentioned in the 2010-11 budget and to be pursued beyond are: Lanjigarh Rd – Phulbani – Talcher, Berhampur – Phulbani, etc.

Update on March 9 2010: As per http://www.khaskhabar.com/daily-news.php?storyid=23144 Mamata Banerjee announced 6 more trains in the Lok Sabha. One of them will pass through Odisha. That one is:

• HWH-Sri Satya Sai Prasanti Nilayam (weekly).

Following are excerpted from the 2010-11 Railway Budget Speech and the Pink Book.

Page 5: In line with our Vision, for the first time ever we are planning a major jump to complete 1,000 route-kms of new lines in one year with our limited resources. This is a path-breaking step, considering the annual average of 180 route kms of new lines in the last 58 years and 219 route-kms in the last five years. If we can achieve this target of 1,000 route-kms, we can also reach the Vision 2020 goal of 25,000 kms.

The House would be glad to know that of the 120 new trains, extensions and increase in frequencies announced, 117 would be flagged off by the end of March 2010. The remaining three would be started on completion of gauge conversion works.

Work has been initiated in all the 67 Multi-functional Complexes (MFCs). Development of Adarsh Stations has also started in phases.

Page 6: Adarsh Stations: Angul, Belpahar, Doikallu, Jakhapura, Jharsuguda, Lanjigarh Road, Lapanga, Meramandali, Raghunathpur, Rengali, Titlagarh Jn.

Page 7: another 93 Multi-functional Complexes – Balasore, Brahmapur, Jharsuguda, Rayagada, Sambalpur

Page 12: Outpatient Departments (OPD) and diagnostic centres – Balasore, Balugaon, Bhadrak, Bhubaneswar, Brahmapur, Jajpur Keonjhar Rd, Jharsuguda, Kantabanji, Kesinga, Khurda Rd, Koraput Jn, Rayagada, Rourkela, Sambalpur Jn, Titlagarh

Page 13: Secondary-level General Speciality Hospitals –  Bhadrak, Brahmapur, Jajpur Keonjhar Rd, Jharsuguda, Kantabanji,  Koraput Jn, Rayagada

Page 14: Tertiary-level Multi-speciality Hospitals – Kantabanji

[In case some may wonder, why Kantabanji, a town of 22K is listed above: My guess is it is because Kantabanji is the constituency of Santosh Singh Saluja, Congress; a senior leader of the opposition in the Orissa legislative assembly.]

Page 15: The railways will also set up four multidisciplinary training centres at Cuttack, Coochbehar, Malda and Jabalpur.

Page 17: set up five state-of-the-art wagon factories in JV/PPP mode at Secunderabad, Barddhaman, Bhubaneshwar/Kalahandi, Guwahati and Haldia.

[It would be great if the above happens in Kalahandi. Kudos to Dr. Digambara Patra and Kalahandi MP Bhakta Das for their efforts on this.]

Page 20: For the remaining four corridors, that is north-south (Delhi, Haryana, UP, MP, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu), east-west (West Bengal, Jharkahnd, Orissa, Chhatisgarh, Maharashtra), east-south (West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh) and south-south (Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa), Preliminary Engineering-cum-Traffic Survey (PETS) will be taken up this
year.

Madam, I had declared DFC as the “Diamond Rail Corridor” project of the Indian Railways. On the lines of DFC, we are now planning to go in for Dedicated Passenger Corridor (DPC), which I declare as the “Golden Rail Corridor” of the Indian Railways.

Therefore, I propose to set up a National High Speed Rail Authority for planning, standard setting, implementing and monitoring these projects.

Page 24: In my last budget speech, I had highlighted the need to take up socially desirable projects connecting backward areas. Many proposals for such connectivity have been pending for a long time. It is proposed to update the surveys for the following lines and thereafter these will be processed through Planning Commission for necessary approvals:

Navrangpur-Jeypore

Phulbani-Berhampur

Puri-Konark

Raipur-Jharsuguda

Gunupur-Theruvali

Jeypore-Malkangiri

Page 26: New Line Surveys

Talcher-Phulbani-Lanjigarh

Junagarh-Jaypore-Malkangiri-Bhadrachalam

[The above needs to be pushed hard. It will bring connectivity to the hinterlands and Maoist belt of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.]

Page 29: The sections which have either been completed or will be completed during 2009-10 are:

Lanjigarh – Bhawanipatna of Lanjigarh – Junagarh

[Why no train has been announced to ply on this line?]

Page 30: The sections covering 1021 kms proposed to be completed in 2010-11 are:

Bhawanipatna – Junagarh of Lanjigarh – Junargarh

Khurda – Begunia of Khurda – Bolangir

[Next year the Bhubaneswar – Khurda passenger should be extended to Begunia]

Page 31: The following new line projects have been included in the Budget:- Digha-Jaleshwar

Gauge Conversion: The sections which have either been completed or will be completed during 2009-10 are:

Baripada – Bangriposi of Rupsa – Bangriposi

[Why extension of Baripada express to Bangiriposi was not proposed?]

Page 33: During the current year doubling of about 500 km is likely to be completed. The target for doubling of 700 km has been fixed for 2010-11. The following new doubling works have been included in the Budget:

Talcher-Sambalpur

Delang-Puri

[The above two are important; especially the later as many trains are now being extended to Puri.]

Champajharan-Bimlagarh

Page 35: Port Connectivity 120. In order to promote industrial activity, the State Governments and the Centre are giving thrust on the development of the ports. Ports are expected in the States of Gujarat – Porbander, Sutrapada, Dholera, Mahuva, Hazira, Tuna; Maharashtra – Revas, Dharamtar, Dighi; Karnataka – Karwar; Kerala – Azhikkal, Beypore, Thalassery; Orissa – Astranga, Chudamani, Gopalpur; Andhra Pradesh – Vodarevu, Nizampatnam; West Bengal – Sagar Kapil Muni, Haldia.

Railways will welcome participation under PPP for providing rail connectivity to such ports.

I am happy to inform the Hon’ble Members that Indian Railways would be completing about 2,300 route kms of electrification in the first three years of the XI Plan against the target of 3500 kms for the five year period. Another 2,000 kms are planned in the remaining two years.

The following sections are under active consideration:

Vizianagram-Raigada

In addition to above, feasibility studies for the following sections will be undertaken:

Angul-Sambalpur-Jharsuguda

Page 39 – The following unreserved trains are being proposed for the common people:

ii. Guwahati-Mumbai(Weekly) via Howrah-Tatanagar-Jharsuguda-Bilaspur-Nagpur

Bharat Tirth Trains

139. To support government’s effort of promoting tourism in our country, Railways will launch special tourist trains called “Bharat Tirth” connecting popular tourist sites in different parts of the country

ii. Howrah-Chennai- Puducherry- Madurai – Rameshwaram-Kanyakumari-Bangalore – Mysore – Chennai-Howrah

iii. Howrah- Vizag- Hyderabad- Araku- Howrah

[Why no mention of Bhubaneswar-Puri-Chilika in the above two?]

ix. Ahmedabad-Puri-Kolkata-Gangasagar-Varanasi-Allahabad-Indore-Omkareshwar-Ujjain-Ahmedabad

Page 40: Duronto Services

Pune –Howrah AC (Bi- weekly)

Daytime: Puri – Howrah

[Either is not much use for people of Odisha. Hopefully the Duronto concept will soon be revamped to include a few more stops – especially the technical stops – on the way. May be they can say Duranto’s will have at most 2 stops other than the start and end point. In case of Howrah-Puri Duranto the stops could be Bhubaneswar and Kharagpur with the restriction that from HWH-Puri it can pick passengers only at KGP and only drop at BBS and in the reverse directions it can pick passengers at BBS and only drop passengers at KGP.]

Page 41: the following long distance new services are being proposed:

iv. Howrah-Katpadi(Vellore)-Puducherry Express via Bhubaneswar (Weekly)

x. Haldia – Chennai Express (Weekly)

xix. New Jalpaiguri – Chennai Express (Weekly)

xxii. Bhubaneswar-Pune Express (Weekly)

xxxiv. Sambalpur-Howrah Express (Weekly)

[The above may be routed through Angul.]

xlv. Howrah – Berhampur Express (Tri- weekly)

[I think the above refers to Berhampur in Orissa. Note that in the budget speech that same spelling is used in many places to refer to Berhampur in Odisha; for example, when mentioning the Phulbani-Berhampur line. There is a Berhampore Ct station in West Bengal but that is better reachable from Sealdah than HWH and there are many daily trains connecting Sealdah and Berhampore Ct. So a tri-weekly express in that route does not make sense. Now, if indeed this train is between HWH and Berhampur of Odisha then it should be extended to Gunupur and made a daily.]

xlvi. Baripada – Shalimar Intercity Express (Tri – weekly)

l. Howrah – Shirdi Express (Weekly)

li. Puri – Valsad Express (Weekly) via Katni- Bhopal – Vadodara

lii. Puri-Digha Express (Weekly)

Page 43: Madam, I would further like to assure the House that 2937/2938 Gandhidham–Howrah Express will be started by the 10th of March, 2010.

Passenger trains

xiii. Bhubaneswar-Khurda Road Passenger

[How many times a day the above will run?]

xxvi. Naupada-Gunupur Passenger (after gauge conversion)

Page 45:

Increase in frequency of trains

ix. 2807/2808 Visakhapatnam-Nizamuddin Samata Express from 3 days to 5 days

[Very useful for that part of Odisha.]

Extension of trains

x. 2831/2832 Bhubaneswer-Hatia Express to Dhanbad (Tri-weekly)

[Brings new connectivity to Dhanbad.]

xi. 8425/8426 Puri –Raipur Express to Durg

xii. 8447/8448 Bhubaneswar-Koraput Express to Jagdalpur

[Brings express train connectivity to Jeypore and Jagdalpur.]

xiii. 209/210 Puri-Dhenkanal Passenger to Talcher Road (Daily) 

From the pink book: 

New Lines Construction Budget:

Daitari – Banspani (155 km)   75 crores

[In the 2009-10 budget 60 crores was allocated for it and the budget said only 10 crores more was needed for completion, the total budget estimation was 367.1 (cap) + 483.6 (RVN) crores, with 367.1 + 413.6 already spent. But suddenly in the 2010-11 budget the budget estimation is 367.1 + 933.41 (RVN). I.e., it has increased by about 450 crores, there is an allocation of 75 crores, and amount spent so far is 367.1+ 671.85 crores. I wonder if the Bansapani – Barbil proposal has been folded into this with post-budget money allocation and spending in 2009-10. Note that the survey of Bansapani – Barbil was approved in the 2008-09 budget and Odisha has been pushing for this. It would also benefit Indian Railways a lot as it will drastically shorten the time and distance between Barbil and Bansapani. Perhaps this was such a no-brainer that it was folded in to the original project as soon as the survey was done. ]

Lanjigarh Road – Junagarh (56 km) 60 crores

Khurda Road – Bolangir (289 km)  120 crores

Angul – Sukinda Road (98.7 km) 22.50 crores

Haridaspur – Paradeep (82 km) 101 crores

Talcher – Bimlagarh (154 km)  50 crores

Jaleswar – Digha (41 km) 20 crores

[Good allocation for Khurda-balangir and Talcher-Bimlagarh. The state government should gear up on land acquisition  so that the allocated money is actually spent] 

Odisha should push 2-3 more trains to be announced during the debate. My top choices would be:

• Gunupur – Naupada- Berhampur – Bhubaneswar-Rourkela day time express
• Junagarh-Bhawanipatna-Bhubaneswar Express.
• Extend Howrah-Titlagarh Ispat Express to Junagarh.

Following are excerpts from a report in expressbuzz.com.

now there are ample opportunities which can help making the district an industrial rich. While an all weather port at Dhamra is on the verge of completion, another port at Kirtania will come up soon. These ports will attract big industrial houses if the government projects the potentiality,” president of BCIC Himanshu Das said.

The industrial body has demanded setting up of a software park in Balasore along with a land bank of 2000 acres for large and medium industries, development of road water supply and drainage system at different industrial estates in the district, setting up of an urban haat, plastic cluster, marketing assistance to SSI units, uninterrupted power supply, development of ancillary industries and proper implementation of single window system.

This apart, BCIC has drawn the attention of the government on transfer of north Orissa railway area (from Lakmannath to Markona) from South Eastern Railway (SER) zone to East Coast zone. “Besides, we want construction of a new railway siding at Bampada as it is essential to have a full-fledged railway siding to meet the enhanced requirement of industries and trade,” Das added.

Update: Following are excerpts from another report in Business Standard which has some extra information.

The port project called Adani Kalinga Port is to be developed in two phases at a distance of three km from Jatadhari Muhan, the proposed site of Posco India’s captive port in the state’s Jagatsinghpur district.

… The proposed port which would have 12 berths in all will handle coal, iron ore, liquid and containerized cargo.

… Besides the port, the Group plans to invest in other sectors in the state like power plant, edible oils and mining.

 

Following is an excerpt from a PTI report in Business Standard.

Ahmadabad-based Adani Group is keen on setting up a large port in Orissa coast and developing an industrial zone, including a power plant, at mammoth investment of Rs 98,000 crore.

A company delegation led by its Managing Director Rajesh S Adani met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here and made a presentation in this regard.

The company informed the state that it was interested in setting up a 100 million tonne capacity port in Jagatsinghpur district, near Paradip Port and a proposed captive port by Posco.

With an initial investment of Rs 5,000 crore, the company has proposed to start the first phase of the Rs 10,000-crore port project in 2013-14 and complete it by 2015-16.

It also has plans to set up an industrial zone close to its proposed port in Jagatsinghpur an investment of Rs 88,000.

…The company plans to send coal after mining at Talcher area, to Gujarat and Maharashtra from the proposed port.

"The coal will be sent after washing. The washery reject coal will be utilised for the proposed power plant," a company official said. The proposed power plant would be a part of the industrial zone.

Update: See inaugural pictures taken by Abhishek Roy at http://www.flickr.com/photos/23140990@N03/.

Following is from the ECOR web site. Thanks to Dilip and Situn for the pointer.

ROURKELA-BHUBANESWAR INTERCITY TO BE INTRODUCED; FREQUENCY OF BHUBANESWAR-LOKMANYA TILAK TERMINUS (LTT) SUPER FAST EXPRESS INCREASED

Bhubaneswar, February 10, 2010

Ministry of Railways has decided to introduce Rourkela-Bhubaneswar-Rourkela Intercity Express from 13th February 2010 and increase the frequency of Bhubaneswar-Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) Super fast Express from weekly to bi-weekly with effect from 18th February 2010.

On the inaugural day 8105 Rourkela-Bhubaneswar Intercity Express will be introduced from Rourkela on 13th February 2010, but the usual run of service for this train will commence from 15th February 2010 in both the directions. This train will run daily except Sundays.             

8105 Rourkela-Bhubaneswar Intercity Express will leave Rourkela at 05.30 a.m. and will arrive at Bhubaneswar at 01.00 p.m. In the return direction, 8106 Bhubaneswar-Rourkela Intercity Express will leave Bhubaneswar at 01.35 p.m. and will arrive at Rourkela at 09.30 p.m.              

This train has One AC Chair Car, Four Second Class Chair Car, Four General Second Class and two Guard cum Luggage Vans in its composition having stoppages at Dhenkanal, Talcher Road, Angul, Rairakhol, Sambalpur City, Rengali, Jharsuguda, Bamra and Rajgangpur between Bhubaneswar and Rourkela.

BHUBANESWAR-LOKMANYA TILAK TERMINUS (LTT) EXPRESS               

It has also been decided to increase the frequency of 2880/2879 Bhubaneswar-Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) Super Fast Express from weekly to bi-weekly w.e.f 18th February 2010 from Bhubaneswar on every Monday & Thursday and w.e.f 20th February 2010 from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) on every Wednesday & Saturday.                

The composition of this train has been increased from 16 coaches to 22 coaches. The train will now run with its new composition i.e. One AC-2 tier, Three AC-3 tier, 11 Sleeper Class, Four General Second Class Coaches, Two Guard cum luggage van and one Pantry Car. The scheduled timings and stoppages for this train at different places will remain unchanged.

In regards to the 2879/80 BBS-LTT, as we wrote in http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/2543, although the frequency was announced to be biweekly in 2008-2009 budget, when it was initially implemented it was implemented as a weekly train. Finally it is becoming biweekly. Note that in the 2009-2010 Rail budget and in November 2009 time table there was an announcement for a 2745/2746 Puri-LTT weekly express. That is yet to be implemented. It should get implemented before the next budget.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Financial Express.

The Orissa government is proposing to develop a special corridor for coal transportation from the state’s coal-bearing district Angul. The 137 km long corridor, which would be developed with an investment of Rs 5000 crore, will connect coal deposits in Talcher, Angul, Meramundali, and Chendipada.

A state government official in the commerce and transport department said the corridor will be developed with rail and road networks with a view to facilitate coal supply to various industries and also transportation to ports for exports and coastal shipments.

Orissa has proven coal deposits of 6,53,53 mt. The Mahanadi Coalfield Ltd. (MCL), a subsidiary of Coal India (CIL), is currently raising about 70 to 90 mt per annum. However, as many private and public sector companies are expected to make their allotted coal block operational, coal traffic from the Angul district is expected to increase manifold.

The state has lined up power plants by 21 IPPs (independent power producers) of a total capacity of 25,000 MW. Besides, a power plant of 4000 MW is coming up under the Ultra Mega Power Project(UMPP) scheme and another 4000 MW is being installed by NTPC. In brown field expansion, the AES-owned Orissa Power Generation Corporation and NTPC are adding 1,320 MW each to their facilities at Ib Valley and Talcher respectively. To add to it, several captive generating plants are being set up by aluminium, steel and ferro-alloys plants in the state. To feed these power plants, at least 142 mt of coal will need to be transported from the pit head to power stations every year. 

Following is an excerpt from a report in Orissadiary.

“With in coming 6 months the 32 seated Aero-service to commence from Jeypore”, declared by MP Shri. Jayaram Pangi along with some Administration Officials at Jeypore Airport. …

During past 1962 the said Airport was established by Ex-Chief Minister Biju Pattanik. During 1980 the service commenced on those days from Jeypore to Vishakapatnam and Bhubaneswar. But now days the said Airport get activated during the VIP visits only. After establishing HAL at Sunabeda the said Airport was established, but the importance found raised after the establishment of NALCO at Damanjodi.

Following is from Samaja.

Following ad is from Orissa Business Blog.

The Orissa State Road Project web site is at http://osrp.gov.in/index.htm. It has a nice detailed map of roads in Orissa. The following details is from its "About Us" page.

The State Govt. during January 2005 had proposed to avail loan from World Bank and JBIC (Japan Bank for International Co-operation) for improvement of the state roads. The proposals were sent to the World Bank and JBIC through the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Department of Economic Affairs, Govt. of India.

The proposals were approved by the SLPMC on EAP (State Level Project Monitoring Committee on External Aided Project), chaired by the Chief Secretary, Orissa, on 20.01.05. The preliminary proposals included 27 nos. of road project under World Bank Scheme and 14 road projects under JBIC scheme. The project cost proposed under JBIC was Rs. 715.34 Crores for 805 Km of state road and that under World Bank Rs. 1642.44 Crores for 2197 Km of state road.

The Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India gave clearance to the proposed World Bank project in their letter dated 07.04.2005 addressed to the State Govt. (Finance Department). However, the proposed JBIC road project has not yet been approved / cleared by the Govt. of India.

After clearance from Govt. of India, a full identification mission from the World Bank comprising Dr.Binyam Reja (Task Team Leader), A.K. Swaminathan (Sr. Transport Specialist), Mohammad Hassan (Sr. Social Development Specialist), and Ernst Hunning (Institutional Development Consultant) visited the State from April 14-22, 2005 to initiate the preparation of the proposed Orissa State Roads Project (OSRP). The mission met with concerned officials of the Government of Orissa (GOO) and senior management of the Orissa Works Department (OWD), and carried out field visits to some of the proposed roads.

During the April 2005 World Bank Identification Mission, it was agreed that, detailed project preparation for the proposed road network shall commence in a phased manner in three phases i.e Phase-I, Phase-II & Phase-III ( Para -11 & Para-27 (b) , (e) : April 2005 Aide Memoir of World Bank).

The World Bank team had discussed with the Finance Department for Plan provisions and necessary counterpart funding. After a detail discussion, the World Bank had agreed to:

                a.         Fund a Project for improvement Road infrastructure amounting to Rs. 1200 Cr. Out of which state has to bear Rs. 200 Cr as counterpart funding. Total World Bank loan ceiling shall be US$ 225 Million.

                b.         High density road corridors having sufficient economic viability of about 1200  1400 Kms shall be included in the project.

                c.         Balance roads shall be identified after carrying out a network analysis and economic viability from the balance 3700 Kms of State Highways in other phases subsequently.

–     At the preliminary stage, identified about 825 Km of Road Stretches to be included in the

Phase-I of the Project. These roads were selected from the earlier dropped project for

which a full-scale techno-economic feasibility study was carried out.

1              Jagatpur  Salepur  Kendrapara  Chandbali  Bhadrak (SH9 & SH 9A) -152 Km

2              Bhadrak  Anandpur  Karanjia  Tongabilla (Jashipur) (SH 53 & SH 49) -142 Km

3              Khariar  Bhawanipatna  Muniguda  Rayagada  Kereda (SH 16, SH 6 & MDR 48b) -213 Km

4              Berhampur  Rayagada (SH 17 & SH 4)          -201 Km

5              Banarpal  Daspalla (MDR 18, MDR 18A & MDR 64)    -89 Km

6              Bhanjanagar -Aska (SH  7)               -38Km

–The World Bank however desired to check the viability of these roads by carrying out an updated techno-economic feasibility study.

–The project also includes identification of road stretches to be taken up in Phase  II of the project after carrying out network analysis for all State roads.

–Accordingly a domestic Consultant has been engaged from Govt of Orissa s own resources to carryout:

1              the Economic viability of Phase  I Roads;

2              the feasibility study & DPR of Phase  I Roads and

3              the network analysis of all State Highways of the State and identification of phase II roads.

   The World Bank Mission had:

–     Agreed for a Project for improvement of about 1200  1400 Km State Roads with a

Project size of Rs. 1480 Cr. (US$ 315 Million) with loan component of Rs. 1175 Cr. (US$

250 Million) and counterpart funding of Rs. 305 Cr. (US$ 65 Million);

The World Bank team again visited the state during September 2005 and inspected the roads proposed by the State Government to finalise roads for inclusion in Phase-I of the project (Para -12 & Para-14 : September 2005 Aide Memoir of World Bank) . During the said visit, some of the important roads proposed under JBIC assistance (Japan Bank for International Co-operation ) was included in the Phase-I list of World Bank roads after discussion with the World Bank, since the proposal submitted to JBIC was not cleared by the Dept. of Economic Affairs, Govt. of India.

1              Jagatpur  Salepur  Kendrapara  Chandbali  Bhadrak (SH9 & SH 9A) -152 Km

2              Bhadrak  Anandpur  Karanjia  Tongabilla (Jashipur) (SH 53 & SH 49) -138Km

3              Khariar  Bhawanipatna  Muniguda  Rayagada  Kereda (SH 16, SH 6 & MDR 48b) -223 Km

4              Berhampur  JK Pur _ Rayagada (SH 17 & SH 4)          -202 Km

5              Banarpal  Daspalla -Bhanjanagar -Aska (MDR 18, MDR 18A & MDR 64,SH  7)) -201Km

Approval from Hon ble Chief Minster to the roads proposed under Phase-I of World Bank scheme, covering a total length of 835 Km was obtained during October 2005, so as to proceed for detailed feasibility, economic analysis and other associated studies for Detailed Project Preparation and bidding. The major criteria used for selection of these roads were traffic volume, carriageway width, pavement conditions, economic activity in the influence area of the road, and connectivity of the roads.

Subsequently, after consideration of the Feasibility Study prepared by the DPR Consultant, the World

Bank Mission during their visit to the State in November 6-10, 2006 have decided to improve the

following roads in the Year  I of the Project.

1              Chandabali  Bhadrak  Anandapur

2              Khariar  Bhawanipatana

3              Berhampur  Taptapani

The World Bank had suggested to carryout detail economic viability and feasibility study for the 835 Km roads proposed under Phase-1 and Network Analysis of the entire State Highway Network ( covering about 3955 Km, leaving 835 Km Phase-1 roads ) for identification / prioritization of 1600 Km roads for improvement in Phase-II & Phase-III ( Para -11 & Para-27 (a), (e) : April 2005 Aide Memoir of World Bank). They had suggested to use the latest traffic and road condition survey data so as to assess which roads should fall under rehabilitation, and which roads should fall under upgrading in the detailed economic analysis.

Accordingly, economic viability and detailed feasibility study for the 835 Km roads proposed under Phase-1 and Network Analysis of the entire State Highway Network ( covering about 3955 Km, leaving 835 Km Phase-1 roads ) for identification / prioritization of 1600 Km roads for Phase-II & Phase-III were carriedout with help of a domestic consultants. M/S CEG Ltd from Rajasthan. The economic justifications of proposed road improvements under Phase-1 have been analyzed by using the life cycle costing economic tool ! Highway Development and Management Model (HDM-4) version 1.3" of World Bank. The economic evaluation has been carried out on the basis of incremental costs and benefits comparing the total net benefits with various alternatives. The economic indicators like NPV (Net Present Value) and EIRR ( Economic Internal Rate of Return) are then calculated. The final list of roads included in Phase-I alongwith summary of their techno-economic analysis with NPV, EIRR and ratio of NPV and cost etc. is shown at Annexure-I: The EIRR of each of the five corridors under Phase-1 varies from 30.53% to 17.28% with NPV of Rs 13172.8 million. It may be noted that the roads with EIRR more than 12% are considered financially viable under the World Bank loan.

 The World Bank had further intimated that the Project shall include

Update: Expressbuzz also reports on this.

Following is from today’s Dharitri.

From the above, and its actions in the past, it seems that Orissa government’s future plan in terms of airports are:

• Make an international airport in Bhubaneswar. (Shifting to the new location will take another 10 years.)
• Make an airport in Jharsuguda to cater for Bargarh-Sambalpur-Jharsuguda-Rourkela belt: Will take 2-3 yrs to be operational.
• Plan for an airport in Jeypore: Will take 8-10 years to be operational
• Plan for an airport in Rasgovindpur (near Jaleswar, close to Balasore and Baripada): Will take 8-10 years to be operational

Couple of implications of the above are: Berhampur and Rourkela may not get functional airports in the near future (say next 10 years) as they are close to airports at Bhubaneswar and Jharsuguda respectively. The overall airport situation in Orissa in 10 years will be as follows:

Now lets analyze how feasible the airports at Jeypore and Rasgovindpur will be.

• Jeypore: It is 258 kms from Visakhapatnam by Rail and 224 kms by road. It is 378 kms from Raipur; 450 kms from Jharsuguda and 520 kms from Bhubaneswar. It will be at the junction of two expressways and thus would be able to serve a large population in Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Chhatisgarh.
• Rasgovindpur: It will be 30-40 kms from Balasore and Baripada; 70-80 kms from Digha; 80-90 kms from Kharagpur mostly on the expressway; 90-100 kms from Bhadrak mostly on the expressway, close to two expressways; 200kms from Kolkata airport;  210-220 kms from Tatanagar and 260-270 kms from Bhubaneswar. (Tatanagar being only 170 kms from Ranchi may not have a viable commercial airport for some time. Kharagpur being 120 kms from Kolkata will not have a viable commercial airport for a long time.) Thus it is far enough to the nearest airports in Bhubaneswar and DumDum (Kolkata), but at the same time there are enough population centers (Balasore, Baripada, Bhadrak, Digha, Kharagpur, Medinipur, Jhargram, Ghatsila) that will be close to this airport than the existing airports. So this aiport could serve a significant population in Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

Update2: Picture of the Bhubaneswar airport upgradation plan. Courtsey: tathya.in.

Update: Excerpts from a report in tathya.in.

… the Chief Minister talked to the Chairman AAI at length and reportedly acceded to the demand of the AAI to bear the cost of Rs.25 crore needed for both land and infrastructure.

815 acres of land is needed for the purpose.

Secondly power, water and road infrastructure is required to be provided free of cost.

So the financial implications will be coming around Rs.25 crore, which will be borne by the State Government, said sources.

State Government and AAI will sign a MOU for development of the airport.

 

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

Airports Authority of India (AAI) seeks 800 acres of land to set up airport in Orissa’s Jharsguda. This was said by AAI chairman, VP Agarwal at Bhubaneswar.

… He also informed that AAI likely to invest Rs 150 crores in Biju Patnaik airport for the establishment of a new terminal building at Bhubaneswar.  … Moreover, work for the proposed terminal building start from April next year he added. The new terminal building would be designed to accommodate 1000 passengers and it would be centrally air-conditioned.

Following is an excerpt from a report in livemint.

“In three months, Luan Airways lines will start flying based out of Surat,” Vardhan said, adding in next six months, three more regional carriers from Uttarakhand, Orissa and the North-East will start flying.

Indian Railways has come up with a Vision 2020 document. It is at http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/DEPTTS/Infrastructure/VISION%202020_Eng_SUBMITTED%20TO%20PARLIAMENT.pdf.

In that it says:

The Vision 2020 also envisages the implementation of at least 4 high-speed rail projects to provide bullet train services at 250-350 kmph, one in each of the regions of the nation and planning for at least 8 more corridors connecting commercial, tourist and pilgrimage hubs. Six corridors have already been identified for technical studies on setting up of High Speed Rail Corridors. These are:
i. Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar;
ii. Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad;
iii. Hyderabad-Dornakal-Vijayawada-Chennai;
iv. Howrah-Haldia;
v. Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulam;
vi. Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna

In the following map the above six corridors are shown in RED. In BLUE are the corridors that I think Orissa government should push for on the ground of connecting to the commercial, tourist and pilgrimage hub of Bhubaneswar-Puri. These two corridors are:

• Kolkata-Bhubaneswar-Puri and
• Bhubaneswar-Visakhapatnam-Vijaywada

In addition the following corridors (shown in GREEN) should also be made to connect the smaller corridors to make larger corridors.

• Hyderabad-Pune
• Ahmedabad-Jaipur-Delhi
• Patna-Kolkata
• Patna-Guwahati

The document is at http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/DEPTTS/Infrastructure/VISION%202020_Eng_SUBMITTED%20TO%20PARLIAMENT.pdf.

Following are some excerpts related to Indian Railways operation in Orissa. 

… the Vision proposes to add 25,000 kms of New Lines by 2020, supported by government funding and a major increase in Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). Of this, at least 10,000 kms would be socially desirable lines regardless of their economic viability in the short run. This will, of course, include the completion of the backlog of 11,985 kms of lines already sanctioned.

The Vision 2020 also envisages the implementation of at least 4 high-speed rail projects to provide bullet train services at 250-350 kmph, one in each of the regions of the nation and planning for at least 8 more corridors connecting commercial, tourist and pilgrimage hubs. Six corridors have already been identified for technical studies on setting up of High Speed Rail Corridors. These are:
i. Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar;
ii. Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad;
iii. Hyderabad-Dornakal-Vijayawada-Chennai;
iv. Howrah-Haldia;
v. Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulam;
vi. Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna

These could be built as elevated corridors in keeping with the pattern of habitation and the constraint of land in our country. The Railways will use the PPP mode for investment and execution, and draw on frontier technologies incorporating the highest standards of safety and service quality.

My Comment:  Orissa jointly with Andhra Pradesh should push for a high speed corridor of Kolkata-Bhubaneswar-Visakhapatnam-Vijayawada. This will create high-speed corridor all the way to Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Ernakulum.

Execution of new line projects presents a unique set of challenges. Of the 109 new line projects already sanctioned and taken on hand, 8 are national projects (which enjoy assured funding) and 12 are financially viable. Others have been sanctioned on socio-economic grounds. Railways face insurmountable pressures to add more such projects each year, but are unable to earmark more than Rs.1500 crores per annum for these projects. Needless to say, the amount is barely sufficient to neutralize the annual escalation in cost. At this rate, the projects would languish forever. A solution has to be found to ensure funding of these projects. Possible
solutions would include:
(i) Projects in which state governments are willing to share more than 50% could be allocated assured funding by Railways and completed in a time-bound manner.

My Comment: Orissa should contribute part of its NREGS funds which it is having a hard time spending anyway.

(ii) A non-lapsable dedicated fund could be set up outside the normal railway budget for construction of lines sanctioned on socio-economic considerations, so that all the projects could be completed by 2020. 

By 2020, IR would strive to
a) Establish quality of service benchmarked to the best of the Railway systems in the world.
b) Expand its route network at the rate of 2500 kms per annum. By 2020, 25,000 kms of new line will be added and almost the entire network (barring the hill and heritage railways) would be in Broad Gauge. This would include completion of the pending shelf of new line projects of 11985 kms. More than 30,000 kms of route would be of double/multiple lines. Electrification of 14,000 kms of routes would take the total length of electrified route to 33,000 kms. This would include all inter- metro links and the other busy corridors.

Several areas currently identified for execution through PPP such as redevelopment/development of world-class stations, high-speed
corridors, setting up of Multi-modal Logistics Parks, Kisan Vision projects, expansion and management of the extensive network of Optical Fibre Cables (OFCs) and big infrastructure projects like new lines and Dedicated Freight Corridors, rolling-stock manufacturing units, Multi-functional Complexes at stations and port connectivity projects would need to be developed and awarded on a mission mode. To be able to do so, Railways would have set up dedicated project organizations who would work with model documents and streamlined procedure within the framework determined by Government of India.

Attainment of the goals in Vision would require a categorical commitment on the part of Government to ear-mark and ensure a steady-flow of financial support to the programme. This should be ideally in the form of an with budgetary commitment to the tune of
approximately, 5,00,000 crore spread over next 10 years. An amount of roughly Rs. 1,00,000 crore of the ADRF could be set aside to clear the pending backlog of socially desirable New Lines and Gauge Conversion projects as a one-time outright grant.
7.2 Budgetary disbursement from the ARDF needs to be front-loaded as a high-growth strategy would necessitate investment in capacity augmentation immediately while the take-off to high-growth and consequently, generation of internal surplus could take at least three years to materialize. During this period, the impact of the implementation of 6th Pay Commission would be fully absorbed and preparatory work to develop and bid out big-scale PPP projects would have been completed to allow a gradual phasing down of the budgetary contribution.

ONGOING RAILWAY PROJECTS (New Lines)

5 ECoR 1997-98 Angul-Sukinda Road Orissa (Length = 98.76kms) (Latest anticipated cost =344 crores)  (Balance fund required to complete = 323.13 crores)
6 ECoR 1996-97 Haridaspur-Paradeep Orissa 82 594 496
7 ECoR 1994-95 Khurda Road-Bolangir Orissa 289 700 622.26
8 ECoR 1993-94 Lanjigarh Road-Junagarh Orissa 56 170 84.69
9 ECoR 2003-04 Talcher-Bimlagarh Orissa 154 810.78 782.8

 Gauge Conversion

2 ECoR 1997-98 Naupada-Gunupur Orissa, Andhra 90 168.88 19.79
Pradesh

31 SER 1995-96 Rupsa-Bangriposi Orissa 90 137.56 22.14

Doubling

4 ECoR 2009-10 Brundamal-Jharsuguda-Flyover Orissa 6.6 38.44 38.44
connection for joining down line
5 ECoR 2003-04 Cuttack-Barang Orissa 12.3 178.98 55
6 ECoR 2005-06 Jharsuguda-Rengali Orissa 25.96 150 119.55
7 ECoR 2003-04 Khurda-Barang 3rd line Orissa 35 207 65
8 ECoR 2006-07 Kottavalasa-Simhachalam Andhra Pradesh 16.69 94.73 75.22
North 4th line
9 ECoR 2007-08 Raipur-Titlagarh Orissa, 203 614.35 548.35
Chhattisgarh
10 ECoR 1999-00 Rajatgarh-Barang Orissa 29.32 242.87 76.51
11 ECoR 2002-03 Sambalpur-Rengali Orissa 22.7 106.54 23.12
12 ECoR 2006-07 Sambalpur-Titlagarh Orissa 182 474.25 399.25

86 SER 2008-09 Banspani-Jaruli Orissa 9 90.88 89.82
87 SER 2007-08 Barbil-Barajamda Orissa 10 50.01 31.3
88 SER 2007-08 Bimlagarh-Dumitra Orissa 18.3 99.01 92.04

92 SER 2006-07 Padapahar-Banspani Orissa, Jharkhand 28 129.74 26.38

 List of Surveys (for new lines)

203 Bargarh-Nawapara Road Orissa 136
204 Extension of Rupsa-Bangriposi to Gurumahishani Orissa 42
205 Jeypore – Navarangpur Orissa 38
206 Jeypore-Kottametta Orissa 148
207 Jeypore-Malkangiri Orissa 130
208 Phulbani – Berhampur Orissa 170
209 Puri-Konark Orissa 35
210 Talcher station to Talcher-Sambalpur line Orissa 7
211 Talcher/Hindol Rd. – Berhampur/Gopalpur Orissa 293
212 Gunupur-Theruvali Orissa 76
213 Raipur-Jharsuguda via Khartapalan, Baloda Bazar, Batgaon and Sarangarh Orissa, Chhatisgarh 310

 List of Surveys (for doubling)

37 Bhadrak-Nergundi 3rd line Orissa 105

38 Khurda Road-Puri (Delang -Puri) Orissa 29
39 Sambalpur-Talcher Orissa 168
40 Koraput-Kirandul (256 km) Orissa, Chhatisgarh 150 

Plan of Action: Short-term and Long-term

The following strategies will be adopted to attain the goals outlined in Chapter-V.

Infrastructure

a) In the short to medium term, the emphasis would be to remove bottlenecks and create capacity quickly. This would be achieved by providing freight bypasses in the large cities, by identifying and completing traffic facility works such as splitting of block sections, removal of conflicting movements and improvement of terminal facilities etc. Simultaneously, effort would be directed towards opening alternate routes to the busy routes through gauge conversion or by closing missing links, if any. In the long run segregation of passenger and freight routes on HDN and substantial segregation on most of the busy routes would be the goal. Dedicated freight corridors and speed raising projects on the passenger corridors would be completed in a time-bound manner.
b) Project execution capability would be strengthened.
c) Port connectivity works would be taken up on priority in partnership with ports and other major users.
d) A non-lapsable dedicated fund will be set up to fund new line projects and wipe out the entire throw forward of new line projects. A mechanism for mobilizing the support of State Governments towards capital costs and sharing of operational losses will be institutionalized.
e) Connectivity projects to the North-East (new line and gauge conversion) and J&K (new line) would be accorded priority. All state capitals would be connected by rail.
f) Segregations between commuter and non-commuter lines in large cities with population exceeding one million shall be achieved by partnership with state governments and city authorities.
g) All construction projects would be executed by use of modern technology and construction equipment. Emphasis would be to create maintenance-free, economic and durable assets. Mechanized maintenance would be adopted to maintain the health of the track assets and provide reliable, uninterrupted service.
h) PPP will be used for efficient execution of projects especially in areas like construction of world-class stations, multi-modal logistics parks, cold-chain facilities and connectivity to ports/industrial clusters.