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I was browsing through the web pages of the Project Report on Indian National Expressway Network at http://www.morth.nic.in/writereaddata/sublinkimages/Final_Report_Part13901147970.pdf

It is a masterplan for Indian National Expressway network developed by Craft consultants which was probably hired by the Ministry. The final version of it is dated November 2009.

In that report, they have mentioned feedback received from various states such as Bihar, Chhatisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, MP, Pondicherry, Punjab, Rajasthan and UP. They have taken this feedback into account in making their masterplan.

Unfortunately, Orissa is missing in the list. In other words Orissa probably did not give them any feedback or if it did then not in time.

As a result there is no new expressway in Orissa during the first phase ending 2012. (The GQ is not counted as part of the first phase.) In the second phase  (2012-2017) Orissa has a very very small portion. Only in the third and 4th phase is there a substantial portion in Orissa. Even then there is no east west expressway connecting the capital area with western Orissa directly. Such connectivity between the capital area and western Orissa is extremely significant.

This is gross negligence on the part of Orissa to not have sent feedback to correct the above slights in the master plan for the expressways.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India.

The road, transport and highways ministry (MoRTH), which has sought a $3 billion loan from the World Bank for this project, has already finalized 3,769 km to be taken up for double laning. The ministry has also identified another 2,600 km for this purpose.

Seven stretches covering 807 km of single-lane highways would be doubled in Bihar while nearly 638 km of single-lane NH falling in Himachal Pradesh would be upgraded. Orissa and Uttarakhand will see 558 km and 448 km of similar stretches being upgraded.

Sources said the preliminary report prepared by the ministry for other stretches shows that HP would get a good share in the list of states to be covered under the plan. Similarly, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Orissa will see large stretches being double-laned.

I could not find out which highways in Orissa are part of this. Some of the sites to watch for are:

• What’s New
• World bank funded highways

Following is a map of the National Highways in Orissa obtained from the Ministry of Road and Transport’s website.

Many of them raised various Railways related issue. MPs Bhakta Das and Sanjay Bhoi raised the issue about a medical college and a national university in Bhawanipatna. Following are news items from Dharitri and Samaja on this.

Following is an op-ed piece from Samaja on the Railways issue.

Following is extracted from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=55629. The ranking is based on "the average number of flights operated in a day from each of the International Airports in the country":

1. Mumbai(MIAL) – 654, Juhu – 60
2. Delhi – 666
3. Chennai – 306
4. Banglore (BIAL) – 280
5. Kolkata – 231
6. Hyderabad (GHIAL) – 219
7. Cochin – 112
8. Ahmedabad- 107
9. Guwahati – 90
10. Trivandrum – 71
11. Jaipur – 66, Pune – 66
12. Goa – 64
13. Indore – 61
14. Bhopal – 59
15. Lucknow – 56
16. Vadodra – 54
17. Bhubaneswar – 50, Calicut – 50
18. Nagpur – 48
19. Coimbatore – 42
20. Visakhapatnam – 33
21. Ranchi – 32
22. Raipur – 31
23. Mangalore – 30
24. Patna – 27, Srinagar – 27, Amritsar – 27
25. Jammu- 23, Agartala – 23
26. Trichy – 21, Chandigarh – 21, Udaipur -21
27. Madurai – 20
28. Imphal – 19,  Bagdogra – 19
29. Varanasi – 16
30. Port Blair – 15
31. Aurangabad – 14
32. Silchar – 11
33. Tirupati – 9
34. Jodhpur – 7
35. Leh – 6
36. Rajkot – 6
37. Gaya – 1 

The mention of the word "international" in the above item is somewhat incorrect, as the list of international airports given in http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=55628 is a different list. For example, Bhubaneswar is not in that list.

On related news, Bhubaneswar is among the 10 airports that are being taken up for city side development in the first phase. Following is an excerpt from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=55627. 

In the 1st phase, ten airports namely Kolkata, Hyderabad (Begumpet), Vishakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Lucknow, Indore, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Guwahati and Jaipur should be taken up for city side development.

Some of the facilities planned to be made available are hotels, restaurants, convention centres, food court, flight kitchen, petrol pump, retail shops, cargo facilities, parking etc.

The land available at the airports on the cityside is to be carried out and leased through open tender for development of facilities. The amount to be spent for city side development at each airport would depend upon the bid to be submitted by the successful bidder selected through competitive bidding.

An Idea: Besides new functional airports at Jharsuguda, Rourkela or both, and regional services in small planes to locations like Koraput, Joda-Barbil, Keonjhar, Baripada, Berhampur, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Rourkela, Lanjigarh-Bhawanipatna, Balasore, etc., one other way to develop the air connectivity of Orissa further is to develop air-bus terminals in cities and towns within two hours (200 kms) of Bhubaneswar. This would include luxury bus services and special counters at

• Cuttack station, Cuttack
• Puri
• Konark
• Dhenkanal, Angul, Talcher
• Chilika area (Barakul, Rambha), Chhatrapur, Berhampur
• Paradeep
• Kalinganagar
• Bhadrak, Balasore
• Bhubaneswar Station
• Khurda rd Station

The airport should bunch together its flights and have luxury buses (of various sizes) running 3-4 times a day to and from these destinations. Outside the airport there should be a luxury bus terminal for these flights. After getting off one should be able to take one of these buses (within an hour) to one of the above destinations right from the airport premises. Similarly, one should be able to take a bus from one of these locations to the Bhubaneswar airport.

This will be a win-win situation for every one. Since the population base that can use the airport will increase this will lead to more flights. Alternatively, various places will have somewhat of an air connectivity. (Note that in big cities it may take 1-2 hr to just to get to the airport.) It will also facilitate tourists.

Such bus servivce from airports to nearby cities is common in many parts of the world. I have used it in Mexico.

The link http://www.rvnl.org/project/project_desc.php?id=74 has the following.

This is the latest addition to the list of RVNL projects. (15 of 60 projects in that list involve Orissa.)  It is listed as a port connectivity (PC) project. Among the various proposed ports in that area, Dhamra port is closest to be operational. This link will shorten Rupsa-Chakulia distance from 167 kms to 125 kms. More importantly it will bypass the busy Kharagpur junction and provide an alternative path to Tatanagar. It will also provide a bypass of the area that sometimes gets flooded by the Subarnarekha river.

The following map illustrates the area. (Thanks to Samit for permitting to use this map fragment from his book.)

The following is from SER’s Kharagpur division map.

The complete list of 15 Orissa related projects listed at http://www.rvnl.org/project/project.php are: 

1. (11) KHARAGPUR (NIMPURA) – BHUBANESWAR (GQ electrification – completed)
2. (12) BHUBANESWAR – KOTTAVALASA ELECT (GQ electrification – completed)
3. (14) TALCHAR-CUTTACK-PARADEEP DOUBLING WITH 2ND BRIDGE ON RIVERS BIRUPA AND MAHANADI (GQ doubling completed)
4. (15) DAITARI – BANSPANI NEW LINE (Port connectivity completed)
5. (19) ANGUL – SUKINDA NEW LINE (Post connectivity – under development)
6. (20) JAKHPURA- HARIDASPUR 3RD LINE DOUBLING (Port connectivity – recently sanctioned)
7. (26) RAJATGARH – BARANG DOUBLING (GQ – work in progress)
8. (27) CUTTACK – BARANG DOUBLING (GQ – work in progress)
9. (28) KHURDA ROAD – BARANG 3RD LINE DOUBLING (GQ – work in progress)
10. (44) HARIDASPUR – PARADEEP NEW LINE (Port connectivity – work in progress)
11. (53) TOMKA -BANASPANI – RE (Port connectivity, electrification, recently sanctioned)
12. (54) SAMBALPUR – TITLAGARH – DOUBLING (Port connectivity, recently sanctioned)
13. (55) RAIPUR – TITLAGARH – DOUBLING (Port connectivity, recently sanctioned)
14. (60) BANASPANI – JAKHPURA – DOUBLING (Port connectivity, electrification, unsanctioned)
15. (63) BURAMARA – CHAKULIA – NEW LINE WITH UPGRADING OF RUPSA – BURAMARA (port connectivity, new line, under development)

 With the Gopalpur port getting ready, RVNL should be soon taking up the Gunupur-Theruvali line. 

Please see below. I wonder why this is not being pursued?

Following is an excerpt from a report in Financial Express.

Besides ArcelorMittal, there are four others, Jamshedpur -based Adhunik Metaliks, Chennai-based SPI Ports Pvt Ltd and Sical Logistic Ltd besides Mundra Port and SEZ Limited, Mumbai has given proposals.

While Adhunik Metaliks proposed to set up a 10-30 million tonne (MT) capacity port at Barunai at an investment of Rs 1683.62 crore, SPI Ports expressed interest to build a 19.76- 41.79MT capacity port at an investment of Rs 1,550 crore.

Sical Logistic wanted to set up a 18-46MT capacity port at an estimated cost of Rs 2,500-3,600 crore and Mundra company proposed to invest Rs 5,000 crore, the minister said.

Tathya.in has some interesting tidbits on this. Following is an excerpt.

Minister was speaking in the High Level Clearance Authority (HLCA) on 17 November.

HLCA Chaired by Naveen Patnaik cleared the proposal of 4-laning of Sambalpur-Rourkela Highway on PPP Mode with an investment of Rs.1270 crore.

He said by slapping tool tax on the commuters and funding the project is passé.

Now while roads are coming up in a big way, lands are identified at some vantage points by the side of the roads.

These places can be handed over to the developers so that they can develop shopping malls, housing projects and this should be included in the package.

And this initiative will lessen the burden of tax payers, who are forced to pay huge toll tax for years to come.

Secondly Minister said that while we are going for expansion of the Highways, encroachment of land is posing a big problem.

… It would be a better proposition to acquire land and lay the road in such a way that more space is left inwards.

So that later that space can be used for expansion of roads and no body will be able to encroach upon and inside the highway, said the Minister.

Following is an excerpt from an article in Indian Express.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has, gently, turned the heat on absentee Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, asking her for a status report on the Railways in a fortnight.

 Forwarding a note by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on an assessment of the problems at Indian Railways and suggestions for a turnaround, Singh’s attempt seems to be two-fold: one, to prod Banerjee to give time to her Ministry and two, to get things moving in the Railways, so crucial to the country’s double-digit growth ambitions. …

Drawing a parallel with China, the Plan panel said that between 1990 and 2007, Indian Railways added only about 960 km while China added 20,000 km. China plans to add another 40,000 km in the next 10 years while India is currently doing around 250-300 km a year. “There can be no doubt that we should aim at adding 1,000 km a year for the next 10-12 years totaling 10,000 km of additional route length,” it said.

I hope Indian Railways figures out a way to add 10,000 kms of additional route length during the next 10 years. That would increase the chances of long languishing projects like the Khurda-Balangir line and the Talcher-Bimlagarh line being completed within that time.

Update:Tathya has a recent report on who is pursuing which port. Following is a table based on that info.

Following is from a news item in yahoo.

The Airport Authority of India (AAI) has decided to upgrade the airstrip at Jharsuguda in Orissa into a full-fledged airport. The AAI has asked the state government to provide 850 acres for the purpose. The AAI proposal was discussed on Tuesday at a high-level official meeting of the Orissa government. The state government has decided to provide the additional 450 acres for the up-gradation of the air strip. The airstrip was build over 400 acres during World War II, an official of the state directorate of aviation said.

Orissa has 17 airstrips besides the one model airport -Biju Patnaik Airport at Bhubaneswar. The air strips are at Armada Road (Mayurbhanj), Utkela (Kalahandi), Tusra (Balangir), Therubali (Rayagada), Rourkela (Sundergarh), Rangailunda (Ganjam), Rairangpur (Mayurbhanj), Gotma (Nuapada), Gudari (Khandhamal), Sativata-Padampur (Bargarh), Raisuan (Keonjhar), Jeypore (Koraput), Jamdapali-Hirakud (Sambalpur), Birsal (Dhenkanal), Rajbasa-Baripada (Mayurbhanj) and Barbil (Keonjhar), besides Jharsuguda. The state government has been proposing the Jharsuguda airstrip for up-gradation in view of a major industrial hub coming up around the airstrip. Three major aluminium complexes by Hindalco, NALCO and Vedanta Resources are coming up besides several steel and power plants in the Jharsuguda district.

Following is from an ad in Dharitri.

The following is from http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/TAG0910/Index.htm.

As per the schedule below, both Dhauli express and Puri-Kendujhargarh express, after their extensions to Puri and Barbil respectively, would need two rakes each. Barbil to Kendujhargarh is 112 kms but it is scheduled to take five to 5:30 hrs to cover that.

A discussion in IRFCA piqued my interest to find the Intercity trains from Bhubaneswar/Puri. Intercity was defined as: "express trains that start in the morning for a destination and return by the evening and are catering to comman man, so we should exclude Shatabdis." Such trains from/to Bhubaneswar/Puri are:

• 2073/2074 BBS-Howrah Jan-Shatabdi Express
• 2821/2822 BBS-Howrah Dhauli Express (to be extended to Puri)
• 8303/8304 Puri-Sambalpur Express (Should be extended to Belpahar)
• 2893/2894 BBS-Balangir Express (Should be extended further than Balangir)
• 2891/2892 BBS-Baripada Express
• 8415/8416 Puri-Kendujhargarh Express (to be extended to Barbil)
• 8413/8414 BBS-Paradeep Express (to be extended to Puri)
• 8411/8412 BBS-Visakhapatnam Express
• 8105/8106 BBS-Rourkela Express (New. Not operational yet.)

I think within a year there will be a new Intercity connecting:

• Bhubaneswar to Parlakhemundi. This will then get extended to Gunupur.

The following extensions should also happen in a couple of years:

• BBS-Balangir to Bhawanipatna and then to Junagarh.
• BBS-Baripada to Bangiriposi

I think the following two day time trains (not strictly inter-cities) make sense and should be pursued:

• Bhubaneswar-Koraput (679 kms, will need two rakes)
• Bhubaneswar-Raipur (via Titlagarh, 687 kms, will need two rakes)

Finally, if the BBS-Rourkela intercity works well then another such intercity with reverse timings need to be introduced.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Hindu.

According to a railway press release the delay in completion of Villupuram – Mayiladuthurai gauge conversion has affected the introduction of 5 new trains and the extension of two services on the section. These services were announced in various budgets. The Chennai Egmore – Nagore Express and Bhubaneswar – Rameswaram Express (2007 budget), …

Southern Railway General Manager M.S. Jayanth said the section would be opened by January as some work on passenger amenities were going on.

Following is from http://eastcoastrailway.gov.in/.

Bhubaneswar, October 29, 2009

Ministry of Railways has decided to introduce eight new trains, extension of four trains, and increase in frequency of two trains
along with change of timings for 19 trains in ECoR for the New Time Table to be implemented with effect from 1st November 2009.

NEW TRAINS

Two daily new trains, five weekly new trains, one bi-weekly new train will be introduced in E.Co.Rly. Date of introduction for these trains will be notified.

One daily new Intercity train will be introduced between Rourkela and Bhubaneswar. 8105 Rourkela-Bhubaneswar Intercity express will leave Rourkela at 05.30a.m and will arrive at Bhubaneswar at 01.00p.m. 8106 Bhubaneswar-Rourkela Intercity Express will leave Bhubaneswar at 01.35p.m and will arrive at Rourkela at 09.30p.m.

One daily new express train will be introduced between Rourkela and Koraput. 8107 Rourkela-Koraput Express will leave Rourkela at 04.45p.m and will arrive at Koraput at 07.30a.m on the next day. In the return direction, 8108 Koraput-Rourkela express will leave Koraput at 05.00p.m and will arrive at Rourkela at 07.00a.m on the next day.

One new weekly DURANTO non stop Super Fast Express will be introduced between Bhubaneswar and New Delhi. 2281 Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Duranto Super Fast non stop express shall leave Bhubaneswar at 08.15a.m on every Sunday and will arrive New Delhi at 06.05a.m on the next day. In the return direction, 2282 New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Duranto Super Fast
non stop Express will leave New Delhi at 01.00p.m on every Monday and will arrive Bhubaneswar at 11.05a.m on the next day. There will be no commercial stoppage for this train.

One new weekly Super Fast Express will be introduced between Puri and Surat. 2743 Puri-Surat Super Fast express will leave Puri at 07.50p.m on Sunday via Sambalpur, Titilagarh & Raipur and will arrive Surat at 03.20a.m on Tuesday. In the return direction, 2744 Surat-Puri Super Fast Express will leave Surat at 08.30a.m on every Tuesday and will arrive Puri at 04.15p.m on the next day.

One new weekly Super Fast Express will be introduced between Puri and Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (Mumbai). 2746 Puri-Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) Super Fast express will leave Puri at 05.25a.m on Tuesday via Sambalpur-Jharsuguda-Raigarh & Bilaspur and will arrive LTT at 01.35p.m on the next day. In the return direction, 2745 LTT-Puri Super Fast Express will leave LTT at 00.15a.m on every Thursday (Wednesday night) and will arrive Puri at 08.50a.m on every Friday.

One new weekly Express will be introduced between Puri and Kamakshya. 5643 Puri-Kamakshya express will leave Puri at 10.15p.m on Saturday via Howrah & Malda Town and will arrive Kamakshya at 04.20a.m on Monday. In the return direction, 5644 Kamakshya-Puri Express will leave Kamakshya at 11.45p.m on Thursday and will arrive Puri at 08.00a.m on Saturday.

One new weekly Express will be introduced between Howrah and Yeshvantpur. 2847 Howrah-Yeshvantpur express will leave Howrah at 11.30p.m on Sunday via Bhubaneswar and will arrive Yeshvantpur at 09.15a.m on Tuesday. In the return direction, 2848 Yeshvantpur-Howrah Express will leave Yeshvantpur at 08.00a.m on Thursday and will arrive Howrah at 08.00a.m on Friday.

One new bi-weekly Super Fast Express will be introduced between Visakhapatnam and LTT. 2749 Visakhapatnam-LTT bi-weekly superfast express will leave Visakhapatnam at 09.00a.m on Wednesday and Saturday and will arrive LTT at 1.05a.m on the next day. In the return direction, 2750 LTT-Visakhapatnam Express will leave LTT at 12.25p.m on Thursday and Sunday and will arrive Visakhapatnam at 02.45p.m on the next day.

EXTENSION OF TRAIN

Four trains will be extended in the new time table. Date of extension for these trains will be notified.

8425/8426 Bhubaneswar-Raipur-Bhubaneswar Intercity Express, 8413/8414 Paradeep-Bhubaneswar-Paradeep Intercity express and 2821/2822 Howrah-Bhubaneswar-Howrah Dhauli Express will be extended to Puri. Similarly, 8416/8415 Puri-Kendujhargarh-Puri Express will be extended to Barbil in the new Time Table.

INCREASE IN FREQUENCY:

2443 Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express will run four days a week instead of earlier two days. This train will now leave Bhubaneswar on every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. In the return direction, 2444 New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express will leave New Delhi on every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Now this Rajdhani will run three days a week w.e.f. 3rd October 2009 and the services of this train for running in fourth day in the week i.e. from Bhubaneswar on Thursday and from New Delhi on Tuesday will be notified.

2739/2740 Visakhapatnam-Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam express will now run daily instead of earlier four days a week which will be notified.

CHANGE IN DAYS OF SERVICE
      

5639 Puri-Guwahati express will now leave Puri on Tuesdays instead of earlier Saturday with effect from 3rd November 2009. 5640 Guwahati-Puri Express leaving Guwahati on Thursday will now leave on Sunday with effect from 1st November 2009.

CHANGE IN TIMINGS
      

The timings of 19 trains have been changed from 05 minutes to 45 minutes in the new time-table. These trains are 7479 Puri-Tirupati Express, 8410 Puri-Howrah Jagannath Express, 2896/2888 Puri-Howrah weekly, 2882 Puri-Howrah Garib Rath Express, 2898 Bhubaneswar-Puducherry, 2830 Bhubaneswar-Chennai, 8411 Bhubaneswar-Visakhapatnam Intercity Express, 8518 Visakhapatnam-Korba Express, 8509 Visakhapatnam-Nizamabad Express, 8309 Sambalpur-Nizamabad Express, 8507 Visakhapatnam-Amritsar Express (via Bhubaneswar-Sambalpur), 2880 Bhubaneswar-LTT Express, 8452 Puri-Hatia Tapaswini Express, 2739 Visakhapatnam-Secunderabad Garib Rath Express, 210 Puri-Dhenkanal Passenger and 222 Puri-Angul Passenger.

Similarly the timings of 2801 Puri-New Delhi Purushottam Express at Cuttack and 2841 Howrah-Chennai Coromandal Express at Brahmapur have been changed for midnight adjustment.

Sd/-
Sr.PRO

Following is an excerpt from a report in Economic Times by Nageshwar Patnaik.

The Aditya Birla group on Thursday signed a MoU with Orissa government to develop a sea port on Build Own Operate [BOO] basis at Chudamani in Bhadrak district on an investment of Rs.1,500 crore.

The projected capacity of the port to be developed over four years will be three million tons per annum [MTPA] in the first phase. This will be expanded subsequently to 10 mtpa.

The port will have two berths, and will handle bulk cargo such as cement, aluminium, iron ore, thermal coal, limestone, gypsum, clinker and copper. The port will be connected by a rail corridor from Markona Station to port site.

  … "In this port, directly or indirectly, about 5,000 people will be employed. By operation of the port, the state government will get revenue about Rs.20 crore per annum."

Mr Patanik hoped that the port promoter would work with the district administration and other agencies to plan and develop a port-based industrial township. …

Speaking on the occasion, Aditya Birla group executive president, Ravi Kastia said, "… We are confident that the Aditya Birla Group’s experience in putting up as many as six port facilities in the Western Coast, backed by the unstinting support of the Government of Orissa, will help us create a much required port in the state."

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

The Subernarekha Multipurpose Project (SMP) which is an inter-state irrigation project conceived in 1970 by the Bihar government with funds from the World Bank, is likely to be partly functional by the middle of 2010 when the 56-km canal now in final stages of construction will be operational by releasing water to irrigate at least 6,000 hectares of land in Orissa.

According to SMP sources, the Jharkhand government is likely to hand over the canal to Orissa government in the middle of next year. The Orissa government has started construction of three reservoirs to store surplus water to irrigate more lands.

…  The initial cost of the SMP was estimated at Rs 3,000 crore, but gradually the cost went up manifold. The original plan of the SMP was to erect a dam on the Kharkai at Chandil, near Jamshedpur and a barrage at Galudih to supply water to Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal using the canals.