Odisha Asks Six STPIs

Tathya.in, July 7, 2014

The State Government today demanded setting up of six more software technology parks of India (STPIs) in Odisha in addition to the existing four.

The demand was made by the Information Technology (IT) Minister Pranab Prakash Das during a meeting with Union Minister for Information Technology (IT) Ravishankar Prasad here today.

The new STPIs have been proposed at Jajpur, Sambalpur, Jeypore, Angul, Rayagada and Kalahandi. The four existing STPIs are at Bhubaneswar, Rourkela, Berhampur and Balasore.

Mr.Das urged Prasad to expedite the final clearance for two projects: the Rs 3, 700 crore IT investment region spread over 10, 210 acres in Bhubaneswar and the Greenfield electronic manufacturing cluster spread over an area of 215 acres.

The Minister also urged the Union IT Minister to grant approval to the Taiwan electronic township in Info Valley, Bhubaneswar.

State IT Secretary Sanjib Mishra and senior officials of the Union IT department were present during the meeting.

During the visit, Mr.Das today also urged Union Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal to expedite grant of mining lease for Manoharpur coal block allocated to Odisha Power Generation Corporation (OPGC) for its expansion of 1,320 mw power project at its Banharpalli plant near Jharsuguda.

During his meeting with the Union Minister in New Delhi, Mr.Das urged the latter to allow interim coal linkage from the Basundhara coal mines to run the plant. He also urged the Minister to pursue the stage-II clearance for Manoharpur coal block.

While the State Government has recommended mining lease of the coal block to the Coal Ministry, it is awaiting approval from the MoEF for stage II clearance. The coal block had obtained Stage-I forest clearance from the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF).

OPGC’s 1,320 MW expansion plan is being taken up at a cost of Rs 11,547 crore, which also includes the cost of other components like coal block development and dedicated rail corridor.

Expressing that the State Government has come up with a mega plan to generate around 50,000 MW of power considering the huge reserve of coal in the state, Mr.Das reiterated the Government’s demand for 25% free power from coal-based power plants, 33 pc free power from power plants based on coal washery rejects in the state and 25 pc cess on the power sold outside the state.

The Minister also demanded reconsideration of the decision to disallow the benefits of Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Program (RAPDRP) to the consumers of the three private distribution companies (DISCOMs) of the State.

Due to the non-extension of R-APDRP in the State, which was pioneer in the power sector reforms in the country, Odisha is losing around Rs 1,500 crore per annum, Mr.Das pointed out.