Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

The Centre had accorded provisional approval to five, proposed petroleum, chemical and petrochemical investment regions including the one being planned in Orissa and had asked if the state government would be investing in the project infrastructure.

The authority consented to invest Rs 2,700 crore on the infrastructure development, while the Centre and central public sector undertakings, including the Indian Oil Corporation, have already agreed to spend Rs 5,800 crore on this score.

In all, Rs 15,273 crore would be spent on the infrastructure development at the project site and on the periphery, official sources said.

According to the vision plan, the proposed region would be developed in an area spread over 250sqkm without any displacement. The areas concerned would be developed into modern “city villages”. The annual project turnover has been estimated at Rs 423,500 crore.

There would be a value addition of the petroleum-related products to the tune of Rs 43,000 crore and an equal amount in shape of export earnings. The total tax income has been estimated at Rs 42,000 crore, of which Rs 32,100 crore is expected to go to the state exchequer.

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.

Deepika Global reports on Paradeep Phosphates’ record production this year. Following are some excerpts.

The Paradeep Phosphate Limited (PPL) has registered a record of 13.18 lakh tonnes production in last fiscal and earned a net profit of Rs 109 crores while raising its income to Rs 2067.2 crore. … of the total production the DAP alone accounted for 8.2 lakh tonnes.

Among the intermediary products, Phosphoric Acid, he said was 2,80,300 tonnes, registering an increase of 8.6 per cent over the previous year.

Similarly, Sulphuric Acid registered an increase of 3.4 per cent in comparison to last year with 7,60,610 tonnes.

He said in addition to 13.10 lakh tonnes production, the PPL also sold 1,42,152 tonnes of imported Mauriate of Potash (MOP), 3,13,470 tonne of Gypsum and exported 31,000 tonne of fertiliser to Nepal.

Mr Nandrudikar claimed that the Navaratna Krushi Vikas Yojana implemented in Orissa and Chhatishgarh had been very successful in increasing the yield with the use of improve techniques of agriculture.

Besides improving the agricultural productivity, the PPL had also undertaken mushroom cultivation and tissue culture of bananas in four districts, two each in Orissa and Chhatisgarh, he added. …

He said the company had already invested Rs 140 crores in first year and another Rs 142 crores last year further adding that it had decided to invest another Rs 140 crore during the current fiscal.