by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance
Bhubaneswar : Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to establish a dedicated Defence Industry Corridor and Aeronautical University in the state.
In a letter to Modi, Patnaik said Odisha provides a comprehensive ecosystem and state-of-the-art industrial infrastructure facilities for indigenous design, development, and manufacturing in defence and aerospace sector.
Odisha is the largest producer of steel, stainless steel, and aluminium in the country with the availability of defence and aerospace grade products from the mother plants of the SAIL, the Tata Steel, the Hindalco industries and the NALCO, he added.
Patnaik also mentioned the existing manufacturing, O&M, testing and research ecosystem in the form of the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL) Aero Engine Facility at Koraput, the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, the DRDO Laboratory at Balasore and the Ordnance Factory at Bolangir.
He further added that Odisha has more than 100,000 acres of industrial land bank and dedicated industrial region to support downstream industries in aerospace and defence sector.
The Chief Minister also mentioned about the large pool of skilled manpower and presence of national institutes of higher learning such as IIT, NIT, IIM, IIIT, NISER, and XIMB.
“The state is also in advanced stages of promulgating a dedicated defence and aerospace manufacturing policy to promote cluster based development of the industry. In view of these unique advantages in the state, the overall cost of production of defence and aerospace products would be very clearly competitive,” Patnaik wrote in the letter.
Patnaik requested to set up a dedicated defence industry corridor in the state and aeronautical university in collaboration with the HAL.
“The Odisha Government will ensure unmatched facilitation support for quick and successful establishment of both the Defence Industry Corridor and Aeronautical University in the state,” the Chief Minister said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, Investing, News, Politics
Bhubaneswar : The Odisha government said on Thursday Rs 75,000 crore will be spent in the next five years for developing the state’s water resources.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has directed the Water Resources department to prepare a comprehensive river policy in the next three months, a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office.
Patnaik said several barrages will be constructed on the Mahanadi river to store water which will be utilised for agricultural purposes as well as providing drinking water.
The barrages will be constructed where there is less possibility of displacement.
Official sources said the Odisha government is preparing a master plan to utilise the Mahanadi’s waters by constructing as many as seven barrages in the downstream of the river and 22 barrages on tributaries and distributaries of the river.
The government would also spend Rs 400 crore in next three years for concrete lining of the Bargarh main canal, the statement said, adding the Chief Minister also advised to start the tendering process of the Gangadhar Meher Megalift Canal System in three months.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance
By Bappaditya Chatterjee,
Paradip (Odisha) : State-owned Paradip Port Trust, which has been focusing on promoting competition and bringing down costs to users, is looking at 17 per cent growth in cargo handling — touching 120 million tonnes (mt) in 2018-19, according to a top official.
Betting big on the ongoing capacity-building projects and upcoming industrial parks along with multi-modal logistics parks, which are expected to boost cargo flow, the leading dry-bulk handing port in the country remains bullish on achieving significant growth in its revenue, the official said.
“Our goal for the current fiscal is to become the number one port in the country overtaking Kandla Port (located on the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat). On the basis of current trends in cargo handling, we are looking at a 16-17 per cent growth in the current fiscal. Cargo handling should reach around 118-120 mt in 2018-19,” Paradip Port Trust Chairman Rinkesh Roy told IANS.
The port, on the eastern coast, has taken “positive strides” in terms of growth in cargo handling in the last three-four years and it had handled 102 mt of cargo in the last fiscal, achieving a growth of about 15 per cent.
“Our main focus has been on getting higher volume of cargo and our topline has improved significantly. We clocked close to Rs 1,500 crore of revenue in 2017-18 with all income put together. If we are able to touch 118 mt cargo handling, the topline would be to the tune of Rs 1,750-Rs 1,800 crore,” he said.
Roy said the port rates have not been revised from 2012-13 onwards and would continue to be the same till 2019-20. While other ports had hiked their rates, Paradip Port has kept its rates steady.
“We introduced a fair degree of competition. There were anti-competition activities which we were able to sort out.
“This is one of the few ports where the cost to the customers came down by 30-40 per cent from 2012-13 to 2017-18. For example, the companies which have been importing coal had incurred a cost of around Rs 600-650 per tonne in 2012-13 and that has come down to Rs 250-280 a tonne. The cost of our services came down through better efficiencies,” Roy said.
The port, according to its chief, remains focused on its laid-down strategy because its competition is “not only limited to Dhamra and Gopalpur port (in Odisha) but also Gangavaram Port” located in Andhra Pradesh.
“If any competitor offers cheap prices and gets large capesize vessels, there is every possibility of cargo diversion to the most competitive ports,” Roy said.
The port has taken up a host of projects to increase its capacity from the existing 277 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 325 mtpa by 2025.
The projects, with a total investment of around Rs 4,000 crore, include development of multi-purpose berths to handle clean cargo, deep draught coal berth for handling imported coal with 10 mtpa capacity and also an iron ore berth. Other projects are mechanisation of the EQ (East Quay) 1,2,3 berths and development of an 0.75 mtpa capacity LPG terminal at the South Oil jetty.
“All are ongoing projects. One part of the container-cum-clean-cargo terminal is already ready and we should be getting the first ship by end of this month. This facility will boost cargo handling by another 3-4 million tonnes,” Roy said.
The port has also made progress in setting up a multi-modal logistic park (MMLP) with the Container Corporation of India (Concor), a public sector unit under the Ministry of Railways, and also an industrial park covering about 600 acres of land.
“We have plans to set up the MMLP with Concor and we have given 100 acres of land to them. Concor will be floating a tender shortly and the work should start from June for setting up the park, Roy said. The port has also allotted 277 acres of land to industries, out of 600 acres, for the industrial park.
“A large chunk of land was allotted to a consortium for setting up a pellet plant of four mtpa capacity and this would help cargo flow to the port. We have got expression of interests for a food park and for which, we are in process to take permission from the Centre to increase the lease period. We are also planning to set up a wood park,” Roy added.
(Bappaditya Chatterjee’s visit to Paradip was at the invitation of the Odisha government)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Commodities, Commodities News, Commodity Market, Emerging Businesses, Investing
By Bappaditya Chatterjee,
Bhubaneswar : Mineral-rich Odisha, aspiring to become a manufacturing hub in India with downstream metal industries, has “learnt from the Posco experience” and prepared a GIS-based land bank of 121,000 acres for various industries, according to a top official.
Unlike many other states, Odisha has stopped signing Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with companies. Instead, it has been focusing on project implementation, the official said.
“The Posco project did not come up for many reasons, but the state government has learnt from that particular experience. Among many reasons, one was related to land acquisition. As a result of which, some delay did happen.
“Other reasons were mostly regulatory issues. With the introduction of auction-based regime for allotting (iron ore) mines, the understanding that we had with Posco for allotting the mine for captive use could not materialise,” Industries Department Principal Secretary Sanjeev Chopra told a visiting IANS correspondent.
“Learning from land acquisition issues of the past, the state has been proactive in creating a GIS-enabled land bank. According to the latest data, 121,000 acres of land bank has already been identified in two categories. Category A is readily available with Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) and the category B land is also reserved for industries,” he added.
He said the entire land bank, industrial estates and clusters have been put on a GIS-based platform and investors can search according to their needs.
The state was, however, keen to recover from its Posco setback as the proposed 12 million tonnes mega steel plant of South Korean steel giant at an investment of $12 billion could not see the light of the day. The Korean steel maker had stated its intention to surrender land acquired for the project.
The state has already offered the same land parcel of 2,700 acres to the Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Steel for setting up a 12 million tonne steel unit.
Asked about the progress on this front, Chopra said: “The forest clearance was in the name of Posco and JSW would need to apply for transferring the clearance in its name. JSW is probably in the process of applying for that. Land assessment was conducted based on their (JSW) requirement and the recommendation was 2,900 acres.”
Chopra, however, claimed that Odisha topped among all the states in the country with a high rate of conversion of MoUs into actual investments.
“Out of 92 MoUs signed in 2004-05, 46 have gone into production with 50 per cent conversion rate. However, the state government has stopped following a MoU-driven approach since 2015. An MoU has no legal sanctity. In a change of strategy, we assure project disposal within 30 days of application by an investor. We remain focused on actual implementation on the ground,” he said.
The state has developed a single-window Go-Swift portal, which serves all the government-to-business interactions in the entire investment lifecycle.
According to Chopra, 124 investment proposals worth Rs 3.64 lakh crore (over $55 billion) were received in the run-up to the 2016 edition of the Make in Odisha conclave, and 76 of them “are now under implementation or in the process of getting approvals”.
The state, with 99 per cent of the country’s chromite reserves, 51 per cent of iron ore deposits, 39 per cent of bauxite, 22 per cent of coal and 18 per cent of manganese, has already become a major producer of metals in India and is now focusing to add value to metals that it is producing, through downstream industries.
“The state has established an aluminium park at Angul with the National Aluminium company for producing molten aluminium and Vedanta has given a proposal for a similar kind of facility at Jharsuguda on which we are working,” Chopra said.
Jindal Stainless Ltd has submitted a proposal to set up a private industrial park in Jajpur district to promote manufacturing of downstream products from stainless steel, he said.
“Tata Steel is also considering setting up a downstream park where hot metal can be made available at Kalinganagar, though it is in its early days. With these parks and projects coming up in due course, the objective is we should be able to add value to 50 per cent of metal that we are producing within the state by 2025,” Chopra added.
(Bappaditya Chatterjee was in Odisha at the invitation of Odisha’s Department of Industries. He can be contacted at bappaditya.c@ians.in )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Bhubaneswar : In view of the communal tension last year during the Ram Navami celebrations, the district administration in Odisha’s Bhadrak on Saturday suspended internet services for next two days in a bid to maintain law and order.
Internet services were suspended for 48 hours starting from 6 p.m. on Saturday to prevent misuse of social media and maintain communal harmony during Ram Navami celebrations.
“The internet services were snapped as a precautionary measure to maintain communal harmony ahead of Ram Navami,” said Bhadrak Superintendent of Police Anup Sahu.
He said as many as 50 platoons of police personnel have been deployed in the town for the smooth conduct of the festival.
Internet providers were asked to stop their services so that rumour mongers cannot operate social media platforms which help in fanning communal tension.
The Orissa High Court has directed the state government and the district administration to take adequate measures to prevent any untoward incident and ensure that there was no communal tension during the procession and performance of other related rituals on the auspicious day.
Communal tension between Hindus and Muslims erupted in the district headquarters during the Sankirtan procession on the occasion of Ram Navami in April last year and after derogatory remarks against Hindu gods being posted on social media. Police had arrested over 150 persons over the incident.
—IANS
