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Update: Following from the PIB release at http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=71375.

Centre has provided an assistance of Rs.216.817 crore for Subernrekha project to Orissa State for 2010-11. With this, the total Central assistance for this Project has gone to Rs.1,058.35 crore. Subernrekha project is an inter-state project between Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal. West Bengal component of the project is at present at initial stage and is not being posed for Central Assistance under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP) after 2002-03. Jharkhand component of the project is not included in AIBP so far. Hence active component of the project under AIBP is in Orissa State only. Government of Orissa has earmarked March 2014 as the targeted completion date for Subernrekha Project. A total of 6,920 families in Orissa have been affected from this project. The Centre has been informed by the Government of Orissa that rehabilitation assistance has been paid to 2,840 families and payment is in progress for 1,699 families. The Government of Orissa has a budgetary provision of Rs.350 crore for the project for 2010-11.

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

The project, a joint venture of Jharkhand, Orissa and Bengal, aims to cover around 3.6 lakh hectares of land. Jharkhand will benefit the most as its 2.63 lakh hectares land will be irrigated. It will also generate around 500 MW hydel power. Orissa’s 90,000 hectares and West Bengal’s 5,000 hectares will also be benefited by the SMP.

… The technical advisory committee of the Central Water Commission (CWC) has approved the project under the AIBP with an estimated cost of Rs 6,613 crore in four years.

… Joint secretary of the information and public relation department Rajiv Baxi said, "The CWC has approved the proposal of the state government to take the SMP under the AIBP. According to the decision 90 per cent of the project cost will be shared by the Union government as it covers three states and the remaining cost will have to be shared by the three beneficiary states," said Baxi.

Officials in the state water resources department said the Centre’s decision would be a boon for people of the three states as it would provide irrigation facility round-the-year. "Farmers will not have to depend on the vagaries of monsoon and at the same time it will also help maintain underground water reserve," said an official.

Following is from a PTI report in dnaindia.com.

Exactly eight years after the ministry of environment and forest accorded stage-I forest clearance to Ong Irrigation Project, the Orissa government has decided to go ahead with the major project to be implemented at an estimated cost of Rs305 crore, official sources said.

"Notification for land acquisition for the Ong project has already been made. The state government has also made budgetary allocation for the purpose," water resources secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra told reporters after holding a discussion with the local MLA and state’s Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste Minister Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha.

Stating that the project would irrigate about 30,000 hecatre of land in Bargarh district, Mohapatra said that public hearing for the pupose was conducted both in Orissa and
neighbouring Chhatishgarh state.

The drought prone area of Padmapur, Sohela, Bijepur, Gaisilat blocks of Padampur in Baragarah district and Agalpur block of Balangir district would get irrigation facilities after completion of the project, Mohapatra said.

While Rs10 crore was allocated for the project in the current fiscal, Rs 15 crore could be sanctioned in 2011-12, Mohapatra said adding that there was apparently no opposition to the project in Bargarh’s Padmapur area.

While the Stage-I Forest clearance had been received from MOEF during February, 2003, the public hearing for environment clearance was conducted on August 6, 2004 in Orissa and on September 11, 2007 in Chhatisgarh.

The salient features of the project given at http://dowrorissa.gov.in/Projects/MajMed/Proposed/Details/SFONG.pdf are as follows:

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

The Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has reviewed the progress of lower Suktel Irrigation Project in the Orissa Secretariat on Saturday , which is under construction in Balangir and Sonepur district. The Chief Minister instructed the departmental officers to speed up the construction work of the project.

As per the information in the meeting, about Rs 1041.81 crores will be expended for the project and more than 31,830 cultivable land of Balangir and Sonepur district will be irrigated by the project. Out of which 29,850 Hector of Balangir district and 1980 Hector of Sonepur district. The phase II (stage II ) forest permission has been sanctioned . The land acquisition work for the project is going on. It has been decided to complete the land acquisition work by the month of October. Two officers will be engaged for the purpose.

The following PTI report from ibnlive gives addition information on this.

The project having potential of irrigating about 31,830 hectare of land in Balangir (29,850 hectare) and Sonepur (1980 hectare) districts, would have 1230 square km of catchment area. Earthen dam of 1410 meter was required to be built for the project.Of the total 29 villages to be affected, 16 villages to be fully submerged due to the dam prorject. Other 13 villages would be partially affected, they said adding that the state government had decided to rehabilitate the people according to the norms of the state government’s Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) policy-2006.To rehabilitate 1266 families belonging to four villages, rehabilitation colony was being developed while the government had identified two other places to settle others, they said. In Bolangir-Sonepur districts, irrigation potential is only three per cent which is lowest in the world, official sources said adding that there was no major irrigation project in Balangir.As Balangir receives scanty rainfall, the district faces acute drinking water problem besides water to the agricultural land.

1. Economic Times on 3 more terminal markets in Odisha:

Orissa government will provide four terminal market yards to enable the farmers to sell their produce at market prices…. One of the terminal has already been constructed at Sambalpur with an investment

of Rs 86 crore and three others are coming up at Cuttack, Berhampur and Rourkela,…

2. Business Standrad on MOU with five IPPs for 4800 MW power:

The cumulative capacity of these projects would be 4800 Mw and the total investment is envisaged to be Rs 23203.52 crore.

With this, the total power generation projected in the state would increase to 31100 Mw from 26300 Mw earlier.The Orissa government has already inked MoUs with 21 IPPs with an aggregate generation capacity of 26,300 Mw earlier.

… Five companies who signed the MoU included BGR Energy System, JR Powergen Private Ltd, Adhunik Power and Natural Resources Ltd, Maa Durga Thermal Power Company Ltd and Vijaya Ferro and Power Private Ltd.

JR Powergen Private Ltd would set up a 1980 Mw thermal power plant at Kishorenagar near Angul at an investment of Rs 7988 crore. BGR Energy Systems Ltd also plans to set up a 1320 Mw power plant at Bhapur in Nayagarh district at an investment of Rs 6287 crore.

Similarly, Adhunik Power and Natural Resources Ltd would set up a 1320 Mw power plant at Birmaharajpur in Sonepur district entailing an investment of Rs 8079.74 crore. All these proposals were cleared by the High Level Clearance Authority (HLCA) chaired by the chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

On the other hand, Maa Durga Thermal Power would set up a 60 Mw ((2x30Mw) power plant at Tangi in Cuttack district, involving an investment of Rs 296.95 crore. Besides, Vijaya Ferro and Power Private Ltd, planning to set up a 120 Mw power plant (IPP) at an investment of Rs 550 crore at Kesinga (Turla Khamar) in Kalahandi district.

The total land requirement for these projects have been assessed at 4360 acres and about 22,325 direct and indirect employment opportunities are expected to be created when these projects would be fully commissioned. Three projects namely BGR Energy System, JR Powergen Private Ltd, Adhunik Power and Natural Resources Ltd would source water from the Mahanadi river system, Maa Durga Thermal Power would draw water from Birupa river.Vijaya Ferro and Power plans to source water from Tel river.

3. Hindu on preliminary bids for UMPP at Bedabahal:

the government was likely to invite preliminary bids for the 4,000-MW Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) at Bedabahal in Orissa by April 30.

The request for qualification (RSQ) for the project may be issued by April 30.

This Bedabahal project would be the sixth UMPP project. The government has already awarded four UMPPs, of which three — Sasan in Madhya Pradesh, Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Tilaiya in Jharkhand — have been bagged by Reliance Power.

4. Sify on 595 crores for waterbody upgrade:

As many as 1817 water bodies, mostly the minor irrigation projects (MIPs) in 20 districts of Orissa, would be revitalized under the Centrally sponsored scheme of Repair, Renovation and Restoration (RRR) of Water Bodies.

These water bodies would be revitalized within a period of three years at an estimated cost of Rs 595.14 crore.

The funding for these projects would be shared between the Government of India and the Orissa government in the ratio of 90:10 for the Maoist infested, drought prone and backward districts of Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput (KBK).

For the other districts, the share between the Centre and the state government will be 25 per cent and 75 per cent respectively.

While the design ayacut of all 1817 projects was 2, 48,545.86 hectares, the irrigation potential of an additional 89,110.02 hectares of land would be revived through these projects, sources said.

Most of these projects under the RRR scheme are being taken up in south Orissa’s Ganjam district. About 800 projects under the scheme are to be taken up in the district at a cost of Rs 250.87 crore.

… Apart from Ganjam and KBK, the other districts where the scheme will be implemented are Bargarh, Bolangir, Gajapati, Jajpur, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Koraput, Mayurbhanaj, Nabarangapur, Nayagarh, Nuapada, Rayagada, Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Balasore, Malkanagiri, Subarnapur, Deogarh and Dhenkanal.

The pilot project for this scheme was implemented for 137 projects in Ganjam and Gajapati districts at a cost of Rs 18.84 crore during 2005-06 to 2008-09.

5. Hindu on Japan giving 150 crores for an irrigation project:

Japan will also give … over Rs 150 crore for Rengali irrigation project in Orissa.

6. Hospitalitbizindia on a mega food park at Malipada, Khurda:

Government of India is likely to set up a mega food park and a marine food park at Malipara near Khurda in Orissa with an area of 282 acres. This information was given by Subodh Kant Sahai, Union Minister for Food Processing while responding to a demand raised by Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister, Orissa at the Orissa Investors meet 2010.

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.

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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.