The power plant is of 2400 MW capacity out of which 600 MW will be provided to Odisha at a low cost. Vedanta is building a 100 bd hospital in that area as a CSR measure.
Tathya.in has an article about this. Following are some excerpts.
The Odishans world-wide now recognize the need of International Flights to Bhubaneswar and Domestic Flights to Jharsuguda in order to effectively connect to the hi-tech businesses and tourism around the world.
Without the requisite air connectivity, Odisha cannot expect a jumpstart in development given all the potential that the state has in Tourism, Education and IT, feels Purna Mohanty, leading Non Resident Odia(NRO).
It all started during Pre Invest Bhubaneswar meeting at Hotel Swosti in May 2010, said he.
And then further concretized with hard-copy signature campaign during Invest Bhubaneswar and OSA Convention during 1-4 July, followed by Ratha Yatra Festival in Silicon Valley, CA, USA.
The signature campaign was completed and submitted to Prime Minister, Civil Aviation Minister, Chief Minister and Member of Parliaments.
NROs are thus presenting an overall proposal of Air connectivity in Odisha, with a request to consider & expedite the implementation of the following at the minimum:
Upgrade the 6 decade old regional Airport at Bhubaneswar to an International Airport at the earliest possible.
Expedite and complete the construction of ongoing western regional Jharsugda Airport in Jharsugda district, in western Odisha, within next two years.
The petitionodisha site has a petition on immediate upgradations of airports in Odisha. Please visit it. Besides signing it please also send emails (email addresses of where to send is given here) as in my experience emails have more impact than e-petitions. While our earlier email sample only mentioned Bhubaneswar and Jharsuguda, the petition adds Jeypore. It is indeed a good location for a 3rd functioning airport of Odisha. (We earlier wrote about it.) Feel free to add that to your email.
Pointers to relevant postings from the past:
I don’t know if being the largest power producer city is something good by itself. In general heavy industrialization is happening in Jharsuguda, and a full-fledged airport is coming up there.
However, matching HRD institutions and other amenities are not being made there. There are universities (Sambalpur U and VSSUT) and a medical college in Burla which is about 50 kms away, but none (except the private engineering college, Black Diamond) in Jharsuguda or its adjacent industrial townships of Belphar and Barajarajnagar. This needs to be corrected. Following are some quick thoughts.
Following is excerpted from a report in Orissadiary.com.
The Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday informed the House that the Airports Authority of India has already agreed to develop Jharsuguda Airport to a full fledged one and for which the latter has also asked 815 acres of land free of cost.
… The Chief Minister informed that the Authority considering the proposal of the State Government of developing Jharasuguda Airport to a full fledged Airport, has asked for additional land of 815 acres free of cost. However, a maximum of 734 acres of land is available near the Airport which includes 418 of Private land. So, the Authority has been requested to scale down their requirement of land through a reasonable estimate. They have also been asked to intimate a firm commitment to complete the expansion project of the Airport within a period of two years from the date of receipt of the additional land and a reply to this effect is awaited, he said.
Related postings on the topic:
Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.
Topping the lists of the prospective investors is Gokul Agrawal of CTC Education Pvt Ltd who intends to invest Rs 6000 crore over five years in developing a 1000-acre knowledge city.
In the higher education sector, Silicon University of the Silicon Valley Group has proposed to set up its campus in the state at a cost of Rs 300 crore. Investments would also be pouring in for the state’s hospitality sector with the US-based Best Western Hotel lining up a Rs 100-crore investment plan for setting up a chain of properties at Bhubaneswar, Paradip, Chilka and Jharsuguda.
Land could become an issue with respect to the proposed knowledge city. A city/town/community that may want such a knowledge city which, I am told, would include multiple universities could offer help in the land part. They should of course first investigate if the group really has that much money and if their plan is for real.
Following is an excerpt from a report in tathya.in.
The State Level Single Window Authority (SLSWA) chaired by the Chief Secretary green signalled projects worth of Rs.37,440 crore.
Expansion of Alumina Refinery at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi from the existing 1 Million Ton Per Annum (MTPA) to 6 MTPA has been allowed.
This project is facing opposition from local people and Union Minister for Forest & Environment, said sources.
Aluminium Smelter at Jharsuguda from the existing 0.25 MTPA to 1.60 MTPA expansion allowed by the Authority, said an official.
Similarly expansion of the Captive Power Plant (CPP) at Jharsuguda from 675 MW to 1350 MW has been allowed, said sources.
These proposals were pending earlier and with the clearance of Single Window Authority, it will go to the High Level Clearance Authority (HLCA) for final clearance, said an official.
Following is an excerpt from a report in Financial Express.
AES India, a subsidiary of the US utility giant AES Corporation, is proposing to expand the capacity of the 420 MW (2 x210 MW) ITPS by adding two super-critical units of 660 MW each. The Rs 10,000 crore expansion programme includes the development of the captive coal mines and the MGR (merry-go-round) rail link to transport coal to the plant site. In fact, ITPS is owned by Orissa Power Generation Corporation (OPGC), a company where the AES Corporation has 49% stake while the Orissa government has 51% holding. However, the management of the company is with AES Corporation.
… The AES chief said that the 1320 MW (2 x 660 MW) thermal power project would be completed within four years of the award of the contracts. The two units would come up on the site III and IV already developed for the purpose.
… Presently, OPGC is committed to sale the entire 420 MW of power to the state government. As the initial plan was to put up two more units of 210 MW each at site III and IV, the state government insisted that the power generated from the expanded units be allotted to Orissa. However, the AES was of the view that the power be sold in the open market to maximize the revenue realizations. Finally, it has been decided that 50% of the power generated from the expanded 1320 MW project would be allotted to Orissa grid and the rest would be sold in the open.
Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard by Bishnu Das.
To meet the infrastructure needs of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) on a priority basis, the Orissa government has reserved 20 per cent of the area in all industrial estates, industrial parks, industrial corridors and land banks for such units.
Further, the state-owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) will promote new exclusive zones for MSMEs in all major industrial hubs of the state.
The locations where exclusive industrial parks will be promoted include Kalinganagar, Barbil, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Dhenkanal, Rourkela, Baragarh, Balasore, Dhamara, Gopalpur, Chhatrapur, Raygada, Kalahandi and Choudwar.
Such exclusive zones will also come up near the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the state.
… The government has also decided that wherever land is provided to large and medium industries, 10 per cent of the land, subject to a maximum limit of 200 acres, will be earmarked for setting up MSMEs. This will facilitate the setting up of ancillary and downstream units, preferably in cluster mode, a source added.
… Sources said that Common Facility Centres (CFCs), to be set up by the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) constituted for the MSME clusters, would be entitled for allotment of land free of cost at various locations in the state.
… To provide assured sources of raw material for such units, the Orissa Small Industries Corporation (OSIC) and the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC) will set up raw material banks.
The two organisations will act as nodal agencies for MSMEs and public sector resource companies will accord priority to OSIC and NSIC in supply of raw materials, which will be made available to MSMEs at the lowest possible rate.
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 are excerpts from a report in tathya.in.
Odisha’s Power sector gets a relief as the first Unit of 2400 Independent Power Plant (IPP) at Jharsuguda would be commissioned in coming Summer’, he said to the media after meeting the Chief Minister.
This will add 600 MW to the state’s power production capacity and can help the State Government in facing the current power crisis.
Mr. Agarwal revealed that construction work of world class Vedanta University near Puri has already started.
At the first stage, the University will have a 1000 bed super specialty hospital and Medical College, also academic building.
Vedanta Boss also informed the meeting that Lanjigarh refinery is fully operational by sourcing bauxite from other states, incurring a huge opportunity loss for both states as well as company.
State Government has assured to look into the issue seriously and try to work out for an immediate solution.
Construction activities for a specialized burn and trauma care centre at Bhubaneswar would begin very soon.
Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.
After committing an investment of Rs 60,000 crore on various projects in Orissa including an aluminium smelter plant, an alumina refinery unit and a mega university project, London-based Vedanta Resources Plc has now evinced interest in setting up a steel plant in the state.
Vedanta plans to set up the steel plant in collaboration with engineering and construction major Larsen and Toubro (L&T).
… However, he did not provide details like capacity of the proposed steel plant, location and investment. It may be noted that in October 2004, Sterlite Iron and Steel Company, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources, had inked an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the state government for setting up a five million tonne per annum steel plant. The steel plant was to set up at Palasponga in the state’s Keonjhar district at an investment of Rs 12,502 crore. However, the project is yet to take off.
On bauxite supplies, Agarwal said, he has informed the state chief minister that Vedanta’s alumina refinery plant at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district is operational and the company is sourcing bauxite from other states to run this refinery.
The chief minister has assured that us that bauxite supplies would not be a problem in Orissa which has the fourth largest deposits of the mineral ore in the country, Agarwal informed.
He further said the company is adhering to the environmental norms in running the Lanjigarh refinery, adding, “Our refinery at Lanjigarh is a world class refinery and it is a zero discharge and zero waste unit. …"
He pointed out that the company would commence mining operations at Niyamgiri hills in Kalahandi district after getting the environmental clearance.
Agarwal said, Vedanta has already invested Rs 39,000 crore on various projects in Orissa and these projects have generated direct and indirect employment for about two lakh people.
Vedanta Aluminium has also decided to set aside five per cent of its net profit or Rs 10 crore every year on welfare activities of the tribals of Lanjigarh. The amount will be spent on meeting the needs of the tribals in areas like education, livelihood and health.
The company will also build the hostel for the proposed engineering college of the state government at Bhawanipatna.
On the 2400 MW (6×400) power plant at Jharsuguda, Agarwal said, the first unit of the independent power project (600 MW) will be operational from the ensuing summer.
Talking on the company’s proposed university project, he said, “We have huge local support for our university project and at first we will set up a 1000 bed state-of-the-art hospital as a part of the project.” Apart from the 1000 bed hospital, Vedanta has also firmed up plans to set up a 100-bed burn and trauma care centre at Gangapada on the outskirts of the city. Construction work on this centre wold take off very soon, Agarwal stated.
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:
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.
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 rttnews.
National Aluminium Company or Nalco, the state-run aluminium producer, will invest about Rs.22,000 crore to set up two mega projects, one in Andhra Pradesh and the other in Orissa.
Minister for Mines B.K. Handique told the Lok Sabha Tuesday that the navratna firm would set up a 5-lakh ton aluminium smelter in Jharsuguda, Orissa, along with a 1,260 MW captive power plant at an estimated investment of Rs 16,345 crore.
… it has set apart Rs.2 crore each for pre-project activities in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.
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.
The greater Sambalpur-Jharsuguda area has the potential to become a major metropolitan area of Orissa. The following maps give some idea of this area.
The population numbers from 2001 obtained from this map are as follows:
More up-to-date numbers from the World Gazetteer is as follows:
| no. | name | census 1991 | census 2001 | calculation 2009 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sambalpur | 131 138 | 153 643 | 170 259 |
| 2 | Burla | 34 640 | 39 204 | 42 338 |
| 3 | Hīrākūd | 23 833 | 26 394 | 28 037 |
| 4 | Redhākhol | 13 723 | 15 035 | |
| 5 | Kochinda | 12 161 | 13 586 | 14 530 |
| 6 | Kalamati | 8 893 | 9 743 | |
| 7 | Rengali | 8 682 | 9 512 |
| no. | name | census 1991 | census 2001 | calculation 2009 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jhārsuguda | 65 054 | 76 100 | 84 237 |
| 2 | Brājrājnagar | 69 667 | 76 959 | 81 522 |
| 3 | Belpahar | 24 607 | 32 826 | 40 150 |
| 4 | Bandhbahal | 7 609 | 8 336 |
| no. | name | census 1991 | census 2001 | calculation 2009 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bargarh | 51 205 | 63 678 | 73 884 |
| 2 | Barpāli | 16 371 | 19 157 | 21 226 |
| 3 | Padampur | 12 971 | 15 442 | 17 336 |
| 4 | Tora | 13 707 | 15 017 | |
| 5 | Attabira | 9 999 | 10 955 | |
| 6 | Kumbhari | 8 058 | 8 828 | |
| 7 | Janhapada | 6 850 | 7 505 |
| no. | name | census 1991 | census 2001 | calculation 2009 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Sundargarh | 30 352 | 38 421 | 45 195 |
|
|
Some of the recent notable developments of this area are:
However, a more planned approach is needed. In particular, a core metro area consisting of Burla-Sambalpur-Jharsuguda-Belpahar-Brajarajnagar needs to be formally formed and a CDP (Comprehensive Development Plan) must be developed at the earliest. In addition if local participation in developing more private HRD institutions is enhanced and local handing of industrialization is done in a smarter way (not just blind knee-jerk opposition) then that will propel this area to a Tier II metro area of India.
The following is constructed using today’s data in the world gazetteer.
Notes:
Considering the close relation between urbanization and other developmental indicators, Orissa must aim to have at least 5 metropolitan areas other than Bhubaneswar with population of 10 lakhs within the next 25 years. Those are:
Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.
The state-level single-window clearance committee, headed by the chief secretary, today cleared proposals to set up industrial projects drawing a total investment of Rs 2,037 crore.
With the decision, decks have been cleared for signing MoUs by promoters concerned with the state government, sources said.
The committee also forwarded two more proposals for setting up of two thermal power plants to generate 3,300MW with a total investment of Rs 14,275 crore to the high-level clearance authority, headed by the chief minister.
… While JR Power Gen has proposed to set up a 1,980MW thermal power plant at an estimated cost of Rs 7,988 crore at Kishore Nagar near Angul, BGR Energy has submitted proposals for establishment of a 1,320MW power plant with an investment of Rs 6,287 crore in Nayagarh district.
… the committee gave its final nod to Hindalco’s proposal for setting up an aluminium re-rolling plant with a capacity of 2.85 lakh tonnes at Hirakud in Sambalpur district with an investment of Rs 850 crore.
The proposal of Rashmi Cement Limited to establish a 2 lakh tonnes ferro manganese plant at Haridaspur in Jajpur district with an estimated cost of Rs 300 crore and Dhananjay Industries’s 40,000-tonnes ferro alloy plant at Choudwar near Cuttack with an investment of Rs 180 crore were also cleared.
The committee also cleared the proposal of Kaushal Ferro Manganese for establishment of a re-rolling mill with a production capacity of 2 lakh tonnes at Padiabahal in Sundergarh district with an investment of Rs 82 crore.
The last proposal, which got the nod, was submitted by Bhubaneswar Power Limited to set up a 135MW power plant at Anantpur near Athgarh in Cuttack district on joint venture with Tata Steel and Jasper at an estimated cost of Rs 625 crore.
Update: Aug 18, 2009 – As Dilip comments below the train should start its maiden run any day now.
Dilip Mohanty writes the following in an IRFCA posting:
The much awaited Rourkela-Bhubaneswar Express (declared in the current budget in an addition to the 57 new trains) remains a mystery. A leading local daily named "SAMBAD" has reoprted that the train will start within a few weeks and the Railways Authorities at Rourkela have already received an additional time table for this train. It reports that the train will depart Rourkela at morning 05:15 hours and reach Bhubaneswar at 13:15 hours in the afternoon. After a stay of about 30 minutes at Bhubaneswar, it will depart at 13:45 hours and reach Rourkela at 21:45 hours(an expected Superfast). This train is supposed to be operated by South Eastern Railway.
This train will bring up some new convenient 1-change connections.
Following is an excerpt from a report in Indopia:
Passengers to Kolkata would now have as many as three Rajdhanis to choose from, with the Railways deciding to extend Bilaspur Rajdhani up to Howrah with immediate effect.
At present, Howrah and Sealdah Rajdhanis connect Delhi to Kolkata.
However, the extension will be on an experimental basis for four months a release issued by Northern Railway said.
The extension would also benefit the people of the steel city of Rourkela, located between Bilaspur and Howrah, as they had been for long demanding a Rajdhani linking to the national capital.
The proposed revised timings are:
2441 (From HWH Friday and Saturday w.e.f 27.02)
HWH: 21 25
TATA: 01 00
ROU: 03 15
Brajrajnagar: 05 02
Raigarh: 05 52
Champa: 07 05
BSP: 08 40
NDLS: 06 05
2442 (From New Delhi Wednesday and Thursday w.e.f 25.02)
NDLS: 20 40
BSP: 17 20
Champa: 18 12
Raigarh: 19 19
Brajrajnagar: 20 17
ROU: 22 20
TATA: 00 50
HWH: 04 30
Composition: AC1: 1, AC2: 3, AC3: 4, PC: 1.
Note that Brajrajnagar is 12 kms from Jharsuguda Jn and 60 km from Sambalpur.
Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) under the Union ministry of civil aviation will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Orissa government very soon for the development of a second airport in the state at Jharsuguda.
"We have already submitted the draft MoU to the state government and discussed the matter with the Orissa Chief Secretary for the development of the proposed airport at Jharsuguda", said PK Singhal, executive director, AAI (eastern region). At present, the state has only one full-fledged airport in Bhubaneswar.
He, however, said the commencement and completion of the new airport depends on the availability of land from the state government. Around 90 acres of land was required for the development of the airport at the industrial town of in south Orissa.
AAI would invest about Rs 80crore in the first phase of the project while the investment in the second phase would depend on the traffic of the airport, he stated.
… Singhal, however, ruled out any other proposal to develop or upgrade airstrips in the state to a full-fledged airport apart from Jharsuguda. “We have not received any other proposal from the government for the development of airport in the state apart from Jharsuguda", he said.
There are 16 airstrips and 12 helipads in the state for landing of aircrafts and helicopters.
There is also a plan to install radars in Jharsuguda. Following is an excerpt from a report in Hindu.
In a bid to strengthen security in the wake of Mumbai terror attack, Airport Authority of India will soon install three monopulse secondary surveillance radars (MSSR) in Orissa and West Bengal.
… The radars would be installed in Kolkata and Raniganj in West Bengal and Jharsuguda in Orissa for proper surveillance of aircraft moving in the region, Mr Singhal said.
At present only one MSSR is functioning here in Orissa’s Ganjam district since 1992.
The radar installed at Berhampur is capable of making surveillance up to 400 km in air path and functions without an airport, he said.
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