World Trade Centre to come up at Bhubaneswar

Business Standard, Nov 3, 2009
Bishnu Dash / Kolkata/ Bhubaneswar


The Orissa government has decided to set up a World Trade Centre (WTC) at Bhubaneswar. It will be set up on a franchise basis and will be a part of the global network of World Trade Centres, headquartered in New York city.

An estimated Rs 12 crore is proposed to be invested in the project. The investment will be in phases and the funds available to Orissa, under the Assistance to States for Development of Export Infrastructure and Allied Activities (ASIDE) scheme of the Union government, will be utilized for the purpose, sources said.

The proposed WTC will make trade information available to its members and the tenants occupying space in the centre in a timely and coordinated manner.

The proposed WTC will be in line with the centres set up in Bangalore and Chennai and will offer a wide range of other facilities and services pertaining to the imports and exports.

Similarly, an information cell on geographical indications system (GIS) and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) under the world trade organisation (WTO) regime will be located in the proposed centre.

“It will be a high rise building and is proposed to come up over 5 acres of land in Bhubaneswar. A special cell for dissemination of information to the exporters of the state is also likely to come up there”, a senior official associated with the process said. Apart from setting up of the WTC, the state government intends to use the ASIDE funds to provide infrastructural development assistance to an aluminium park being developed by Nalco and Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) at Angul. It may be noted, the Union government has allotted Rs 9.14 crore for Orissa under the ASIDE scheme for 2009-10. Out of it, Rs 3.32 crore has already been released to the state. The state got Rs 51.97 crore ASIDE fund between 2003-04 and 2008-09 and out of it Rs 42.59 crore was utilised by the end of 2008-09. {

Other projects which are being implemented in the state leveraging the ASIDE funds include the RS 33 crore IT Towers project taken up by the Orissa Computer Application Centre (OCAC). The proposed tower will act as a MSME software park. {The funds available under ASIDE scheme are also being used for Rs 390 crore Haridaspur-Paradeep broad gauge railway line. Recently, the State Level Export Promotion Committee (SLEPC) on ASIDE, chaired by the chief secretary, approved sanction of additional Rs 72 lakhs towards the state government’s equity in the special purpose vehicle (SPV) formed to implement the rail project.

While Rs 1.5 crore has been sanctioned to provide additional funds for the development of arterial road in the Infocity area of Chandaka Industrial Estate, Rs 1.83 crore was sanctioned for installation of 7.5 MVA substation in the Infocity. Similarly, Rs 1 crore has been approved for setting up of a filigree centre at Cuttack by the industry department and Rs 25 lakh for setting up of a public-private-partnership (PPP) cell in the planning and co-ordination department utilizing the ASIDE fund.