This is an welcome news. My guess is that if proper efforts are made then the situation with respect to air connectivity in Odisha could be as follows:

• Bhubaneswar airport would have a few international flights, better connectivity to big cities across India and small planes flying to nearby smaller airports.
• Jharsuguda airport would have flights to several cities in India.
• Airports in Rourkela, Berhampur, Jeypore and Rasgovindpur would have small planes (20-40 seaters) flying mainly to nearby larger airports.
• The locations mentioned above matches with the Tier 1 and 2 areas mentioned in the orissa2020 site.
• In the next tier will be airports at Angul, Therubali, Utkela (Kalahandi) and others. (See the list of airstrips in Odisha here.) I think because of the industries Angul and Therubali will be the leading contenders.

… Tata Steel has finally geared up to put to use its 3,200 acres of land lying idle at Gopalpur in Orissa. Playing the role of the anchor tenant for an industrial park proposed to come up on this patch of land, the company is all set to launch two projects: a 50,000 tonne per annum ferroalloys plant and 40,000 tonne per annum bar mill there.

The two projects together are estimated to cost about 1000 crore.

… "To start with, the proposed two units, the ferroalloys plant and the bar mill, will be our anchor investment. But our ultimate objective is to make this industrial park attractive for investors in the field of steel and steel downstream, speciality and bulk chemicals and engineering", said a senior official of the company.

While the ferroalloys plant will cost about Rs 200 to 250 crore, the bar mill will be set up at an investment of Rs 750 to Rs 800 crore. This will be the third ferroalloys plant of Tata Steel in Orissa. The company is operating two ferroalloys plants at Bamanipal and Athgarh (through its subsidiary Rawmet) with capacities of 50,000 tonnes per annum each.

For the bar mill, the company intends to get the ingots from Jamshedpur by rail and road. Similarly, the company will source raw material for the ferroalloys plant, which will be a backward integration project for the company’s proposed six million tonne plant at Kalinganagar, from its chromite mines in Sukinda valley. Both the units are expected to be commissioned in 30 months time.

It may be noted Tata Steel had acquired 3,700 acres (including 500 acres for the rehabilitation colony) in mid 1990s for setting up of a 10 million tonne steel plant at Gopalpur. However, it shelved the project and the land was lying vacant.

… The infrastructure for the industrial park will jointly be developed by Tata Steel and its associate company, Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd (TRIL). A feasibility study on the complex has been done by Ernst and Young while another internationally famed consultant, Jurong of Singapore is currently preparing its master plan. The master plan will be ready in 3 to 4 months following which the company will market the project and attract investors to set up their units in the park, said the sources.

The cost of infrastructure, which includes developing the land and providing road, rail, power, water supply facilities within the park and linking them to external sources, is estimated at about Rs 5000 crore.

This is really great for the Berhampur area. With a fabulous beach and port next door in Gopalplur, good road and rail connectivity, decent infrastructure (a university, a government engineering college, a medical college, several private engineering colleges), nearby tourist spots (such as Chilika lake), and a multi-cultural and multi-lingual population Berhampur is ready for prime time. It just needs to be marketed at a national level.

Moreover, its proximity to the Bhubaneswar area is a big plus. From Khurda Rd (the current southern edge of the greater Bhubaneswar area) it is only 147 kms. Being connected to Bhubaneswar by one leg of the Golden Quadrilateral, one can drive between the two areas in less than 2 hours. So even if it does not yet have air connectivity, its closeness to Bhubaneswar airport will come in handy.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

… The SEZ will come up on 3585 acres of land acquired by Tata Steel. The company had acquired the land in mid 90s for setting up a steel plant. But with the project being shelved later, it had decided to use the land for setting up of a SEZ.

“Tata Steel has kicked off work on boundary wall construction and land leveling work in the first phase. The company has engaged 400 labourers for the SEZ work”, industries minister Raghunath Mohanty said in a written reply in the state legislative assembly.

About four km of boundary wall has been constructed and the work on remaining six km of boundary wall is underway.

“The company has taken possession of 2792.65 acres of private land and 792.64 acres of government land for the SEZ. It expects to complete boundary wall construction and land leveling work on the Gopalpur SEZ project by December 2010”, the minister added.

… Official sources said surveying the land for the project has already been completed. The legal and statutory requirements have been submitted to the appropriate authority for clearance.

… As per the proposal, the company would invest Rs 150 crore for land acquisition and connectivity, Rs 100 crore for energy academy, Rs 2,700 crore for power plant, Rs 1,000 crore for creating marine facilit. While Rs 400 crore would be invested for desalination plant and another Rs 500 crore would be towards township and office complex.

…Officials pointed out that oil and gas-based industries, which have shown interest in the hub are Alph Tech International Inc., Downstream Services, USA, Richemen Petroleum-Export Oriented Refinery, Dubai, SBM Offshore –FPSO Services, USA, ULO Systems LIC, Subsea Pipelines, Switerzerland and Dubai, Hyundai Offshore, South Korea.

The non-oil and gas-based industries which has evinced interest in the hub are Seacor Marine Inc, USA, Faros Investment Partners, UP, Wind Turbines and Blades, Aerostar, USA, Matrix Global LIC, USA and Virtue Group, USA.

Following is from an UNI report in newkerala.

The proposal was submitted to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik by Mr S K Chalamsethy, Director Sonepur Energy and Oil City Private Limited set up by the consortium, sources said today.

The company, official sources said, had proposed to set up an Energy Academy for the development of technical knowhow in the energy and oil sectors and create necessary infrastructure for port, power, desalination plant, fabrication and township.

While the Consortium would invest Rs 5,000 crore, other industrial houses would invest nearly Rs 10,000 crore. The projects, when completed, would provide direct employment to 20,000 people and indirect employment to one lakh.

The Energy Academy would impart training to engineer, geologist, geophysicist, drilling engineer, fabricators besides other technical persons in close association with the international oil companies.

The company, sources said, would invest Rs 100 crore on the academy which would encourage small business men in the Oil sector.

In the proposed Oil city, a port, a ship manufacturing unit, 1000 MW gas based power plant and 120 MLD Desalination Plant, besides a modern city for a population of 10,000, would be established. This apart, infrastructure for setting up of Petrochemical complex and Oil storage would be created in the city.

Official sources said the Southern Orissa, being located on the Krishna-Godabari and Mahanadi basin, has the potential for investment in the oil and gas sectors and Orissa would emerge as a major Hydrocarbon Hub in the entire South East Asia.

In a report in Orissadiary, the group is named as Greenco. I could find a website for Greenko which has a director named Anil Kumar Chalamalasetty. This financial express interview is with him. Greenko stock listing info is here.

Note that Sonepur in Ganjam is next to the Bahuda Muhana. See

• Map: Orissa ports (large map)
• Map: Orissa ports (small map)

In 2008 the Odisha government had proposed Bahuda Muhana as one of the sites in response to a GOI call for a PPP based shipyard. So the above mention plan for a shipyard fits in nicely; or it may mean good homework done by the group in making the overall proposal.

However, Odisha government needs to be careful about grandiose proposals from newcomers, as it may be a land grab plan in disguise.

The Western Industrial Belt.

The Southwestern & Central Outposts.

• Berhampur-Gopalpur to the south (with a then population of 1.5 million; about 145 kms away)
• Puri to the south (with a then population of 700K; only 30kms away)
• Kalinganagar to the North (with a then population of 500K; only 50 kms away)
• Talcher-Angul to the West (with a then population of 500K; only 110 kms away)
• Dhenkanal to the west (with a then population of 200K and almost in the periphery)
• Paradip to the east (with a then population of 400K and 90 kms away)
• Dhamara-Chandbali to the Northeast (with a then population of 200K and 140 kms away)
• Bhadrak to the North (with a then population of 200K and 140 kms away)

A little farther is

• Balasore-Chandipur to the North (with a then population of 300K and 162 kms away from the Northern end of Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Khurda area)

In addition there will be several port towns other than the ones mentioned above and a few smaller towns (For example, Nayagarh)  within 200km radius of greater Bhubaneswar.

Besides individual CDPs for these areas the Odisha governement should start making plans for this larger overall area. It would form a different kind of megalopolis than New Delhi, Mumbai or Kolkata with a well planned hub (Bhubaneswar) surrounded by mini-hubs and with rural areas in between. I can not off-hand think of another such area in the world; may be the readers can point me to some. Please suggest what kind of plans need to be made. (Please note that for something to be up and running in 20 years, plans need to be made now.) For example:

• Commuter trains at frequent intervals and the necessary infrastructure for that. Following are some of the segments
  • Bhubaneswar-Puri-Konark-Astaranga (Puri-Konark-Astaranga needs to be built; alternatively if Astaranga port comes up, then there may be a new line from Barang to Astaranga)
  • Bhubaneswar-Berhampur-Gopalpur (Berhampur-Gopalpur needs to be built)
  • Bhubaneswar-Jajpur Rd(Kalinganagar)-Bhadrak-Dhamara (Bhadrak-Dhamara is ready but no trains yet)
  • Bhubaneswar-Jajpur Rd(Kalinganagar)-Bhadrak-Balasore-Baripada
  • Bhubaneswar-Jakhapura(Kalinganagar)-Tomka (on the line to Kendujhargarh)
  • Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Paradeep (ready)
  • Bhubaneswar-Dhenkanal-Talcher-Angul (ready)
  • Bhubaneswar-Khurda-Nayagarh and beyond (being constructed; part of Khurda-Balangir)
  • Angul-Talcher-Sukinda-Kalinganagar (being constructed)
• Expressways linking these places
• Fast buses linking these places
• Fast airport shuttle
• Some of these places would be connected by waterways including National Waterway 5
• Express ring road around each of these places
• Co-ordinated public transport in each of these places
• ??

Please let your imagination run wild!

Astha International Limited, one of India’s leading direct selling companies based out of Surat (Gujarat), would invest Rs 5000 crore on a slew of business ventures in Orissa by the end of 2012.

The investment which is to be raised through a mix of debt and internal accruals as well as from its 4.5 lakh odd distributors across the country, will be made on developing an integrated township project called ‘Astha City’ near Berhampur, a star hotel in Puri and a textile mill in Bhubaneswar.

Besides, Astha International would set up a dairy production unit, a multiplex and a hyper mall in the city.

The company has opened an office in the city and this would serve as the zonal office for the states of Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal.

Together, all these projects will generate direct employment for over 10,000 people in the state.

All these projects are expected to be commissioned by the end of 2012.

"… The company would first begin with the integrated township project for which it has already identified around 200 acres of land near Berhampur.”

The company is betting big on the Orissa market which currently accounts for about 50 per cent of its overall revenues.

Astha International which has operations in 12 states of the country, clocked a revenue of Rs 300 crore in the last fiscal.

Out of 4.5 lakh distributors of the company, 1.5 lakh are based out of Orissa.

Astha International, which has more than 10,000 products in 26 different segments, also plans to float a bank called Astha Bank by 2011-12.

“We have already got the license of the Reserve Bank of India for starting banking operations and our bank will commence operations from 2011-12”, Chauhan claimed.

The website of this company is http://www.asthainternational.in/. In that site they mention an Astha city in Gujarat. Following is from Samaja.

Gopalpur Port project has raised Rs12.12bn loan to fund the construction of a deep sea port located in Orissa, on the east coast of the country. Sponsors are Sara International and Orissa Stevedores which hold 50% share each. Signing was held on April 28 among 11 domestic bank lenders. MLA was SBI Capital.