Sarada seeks united effort for Rourkela development

Daily Pioneer reports

Participating in a seminar ‘Rourkela development in present context’ local MLA and former Urban Development Minister Sarada Prasad Nayak on Sunday evening urged the leaders across party line and social activists to put in united efforts for development of the steel city.

The seminar was organised by Rourkela Intellectual Forum on the Cultural Academy premises.Forum secretary Rabi Kanungo, initiating the discussion, focused on different development issues, including regularisation of airport, construction of a second bridge on river Brahmani, full functioning of the Biju Patnaik University of Technology’s (BPUT) head office, increasing number of trains to the Rourkela station, gearing up Talcher-Bimlagarh rail line, converting Rourkela Municipality to a corporation, construction of new roads and planting more trees, among others.

MLA Nayak gave information on different development issues undertaken by him and promised full support for other projects. Nayak informed that around 40,000 trees were planted as part of a massive afforestation programme on 365 hectares of land of Durgapur Hills with the help of the Forest department. Rourkela Muncipality vice chairman RN Mishra informed about development in Rourkela, particularly the projects undertaken by the Rourkela Muncipality. He also said that the civic body needs more fund for taking up more projects. He informed that construction of new roads, more plantations, more street lights, among other projects, have been undertaken by the civic body. He also said thousands of saplings are planned to be planted in and around the BPUT and the NIT campuses, besides in other areas as per the direction of the State Government under the urban forestation plan.

Among others, former MLA Prabhat Mohapatra, Rourkela Bar Association president Ramesh Bal, Congress leader Biren Senapati, BJP leader Dhiren Senapati, Rourkela Press Club secretary Mihir Ray, poet Ashok Chandra Mohapatra, forum president Debendra Mohanty, vice president Dr Shyam Sundar Das and member Usha Kanti Mahapatra spoke. Mahendra Mishra coordinated.

Dilapidated Kalunga rly siding cries for repair

Daily Pioneer reports

The dilapidated Kalunga Railway Siding is in an utterly poor condition since long without repair. The basic facilities are also not made available at the spot.

The railway siding needs immediate repair. But it is matter of concern that instead of taking repair and renovation work so as to make it workable and safe, the South Eastern Railways has been charging heavy fee on the customers. Moreover, in the rainy season, the siding area has been coved in sticky mud of around 2-3 feet high, thereby making it difficult for the trucks, cranes and other vehicles to move around the platform for unloading. Further, due to lack of proper drainage system, big puddles of water have been formed making the siding vulnerable to accident during unloading.

Although the capacity of the siding is only of a rake of maximum 45 wagons, at least 30-40 wagons of HR Coils have occupied the entire portion just beside the railway track for a year. Due to this, an accident had occurred in August 2011. Placing rake at the siding is a major violation of the railway safety rules.

Sometimes, the heavy bundle of HR coils falls on the railway track and damages the track massively. Further, about 5-6 trees are obstructing the unloading activities in the area.

As per sources, the wagon unloading operation time is up to 10 pm. During the night, the siding is engulfed in darkness all around as there are only two light towers on both the sides which are also not working for last 2-3 months. There are chances of theft in the area too.

Further, lack of drinking water, drainage, completely broken public toilets, besides rise in anti-social activities and no RPF and GRP protection have rendered the siding almost unworkable.

Steel city pays musical tribute to Rajesh Khanna

Daily Pioneer reports

Safar, a musical extravaganza, was organised on Saturday evening to pay tribute to legendary Bollywood super star and director Rajesh Khanna. A large number of Rajesh Khanna fans congregated at the Civic Centre here where the show was performed.

Music director Pradeep Gurwara designed the show, while The Creation Media did the event management. Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) CEO Gauri Shankar Prasad and Manjari Prasad attended as guests on the occasion and paid floral tribute on the photo of Khanna.

Singers from Jamsedhpur, Kolkata and Kharagpur put up a stellar performance at the jam packed auditorium. The programme exhibited 50 songs from films of Khanna, including O mere dil k chain, E jo mohabbat, zindegi ek safar, among others. Raja Hafiz, Ranju Mohanty, Sushmita, Priyanka, Palabi, Sanjay and Barsha cheered the audience with their soulful rendering of the songs.

Talk on sensors in medical science, engg held at Rourkela

Daily Pioneer reports

http://dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhubaneswar/90665-talk-on-sensors-in-medical-science-engg-held-at-rkela.html

Advances of Sensors in Medical Science and Engineering, a seminar, was organised jointly by the Institution of Engineers India (IEI), Rourkela centre and the Purushottam Institute of Engineering and Technology (PIET) on August 25.

While welcoming the gathering, IEI chairman Dr AN Das said that the new and advanced sensing technologies in medical science are being designed to stimulate the development of health sensors and sensing technology.

The current research will enable new technologies and bring about entirely new ways to monitor, improve and access advanced healthcare, he hoped.

The Indian Medical Association, Rourkela unit president Dr RR Panda said that current research in health micro systems, micro sensors and device physics may reveal spectral regimes and new applications of imaging science to biology, medicine and medical science.

Chief Guest Ispat General Hospital Director Dr SK Mishra spoke abouthow the diverse areas of research on nano wire sensors for medicinecan yield revolutionary advances in healthcare.In the technical session, five technical papers were presented by the authors from academic and medical institutions. Each technical paperwas followed by a brief interactive discussion. Proceedings of theseminar were released by the Chief Guest Mishra. Mementos were also presented to all dignitaries on the dais.

The function ended with a vote of thanks by Prof BC Patel of PIET. A large number of members and guests attended the function.

Rourkela : The saga of a Metropolis

SAMBAD reports

Rourkela misses bus again

Indian Express reports

ROURKELA: Reintroduction of air connectivity to Rourkela city which has been a necessity for industrial growth of Sundargarh district, continues to remain elusive.

The district with large industrial and mining activities along with two noted educational institutions is felt to be a deserving destination for commercial flights.

In fact, Rourkela in the first quarter of 2011 had come close to having commercial flights, but for some reason missed the opportunity as the private airlines AIR Deccan reportedly backed out.

An administrative meeting convened in December 2010 under the chairmanship of the then Rourkela ADM Sachin Ramchandra Jadhav had informed about administration’s involvement in obtaining necessary ground clearances, including measures to obtain mandatory flight and air terminal clearances from the Director-General of Civil Aviation and security go ahead.

It was decided to upgrade the airstrip of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) to handle small size commercial air crafts and AIR Deccan vice-president Sanjay Sehgal too had agreed to press into service its 18-seater Beech 900D aircraft.

Former president of Rourkela Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) Subrata Patnaik said the economic and industrial growth potential of the district cannot be achieved without air-connectivity.

And this despite the fact that Rourkela Steel Plant is nearing target to expand production capacity to 4.5 million tonnes and the National Institute of Technology-Rourkela and the Biju Patnaik University of Technology have taken rapid strides to give a distinct identity to the city.

With the State Government moving ahead to restore the Jharsuguda airport as the second best in Odisha, the chances of Rourkela seem to hang in balance.

Rourkela ADM PC Pathi said no fresh development had taken place. “The city administration would take up the issue with appropriate authorities. In between, a couple of light aircraft had ventured with trial runs, but were not safe worthy,” he said.

Odia hip-hopper crowned dance queen

Expressbuzz reports ROURKELA: Rajasmita Kar, nay Niki, is not just contented with the trophy and a brand new Ertiga. Her first ambition post the Dance India Dance (DID) glory is a nice home for her parents, Bollywood etc can wait. The 21-year-old Rajasmita was declared the winner at the grand finale of the third season of Zee TV’s dance reality show on Saturday night.

And back home, the Steel City is soaked in youthful joy after the girl next door won the coveted dance show with the highest 45,89,300 votes.

Born on the Republic day in 1991, Rajasmita lives with her parents Ramesh Kumar Kar and Ranjita in Rourkela. A Class XII Arts student, Rajasmita has always been passionate about dance. She loves to practise and perform ‘Hip Hop’ dance in leisure time.

From early Sunday morning, all roads led to the Basanti Colony residence of Rajasmita and congratulations poured in. The neighbours also distributed sweets among themselves, while her friends danced in wild celebration and cheered for hours. Congratulatory messages rained on the Kar family.

“Niki has made us proud,” said her mother Ranjita.

Local councillor Asesh Mohanty who was instrumental in garnering support for her during the voting rounds said Rajasmita was the most deserving dancer among the DID competitors. “She has brought laurels to Rourkela and her feat helped the small city to etch up a mark in the country,” he said.

The Odisha girl beat Pradeep Gurung, 24, from Assam, Raghav Juyal, 20, from Dehra Dun, Sanam Johar, 20, of Delhi and Mohena Singh, 23, from Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa to walk away with the winner’s trophy and Maruti Ertiga car. The show had started off with 18 contestants.

Hosts Saumya Tandon and Jay Bhanushali opened the show with their dance performances. Judges and mentors Geeta Kapoor, Remo D’Souza and Terence Lewis also created magic with their spectacular acts, while grand master Mithun Chakraborty was seen applauding.

Earlier, she had participated in Tarang TV channel’s dance programme ‘Jhum Odisha Jhum’ and ‘Dhum Maggi Dhum’ and reached finals. In October 2011, the audition for ‘Dance India Dance-3’ was held at Bhubaneswar; where she participated and went to Mumbai.

Since December 24 of 2011, she has been performing in DID3.

Air Service still a distant mirage for Rourkela

SAMBAD reports

Vote for Rajasmita at 18002661601 Till April 21

SAMBAD reports

Special train for exam on April 28

Daily Pioneer reports

With a view to clear waitlisted passengers in regular trains towards Rourkela and to provide better passenger comforts to the commuters, especially the students who are going to appear at examinations, the East Coast Railway (ECoR) has decided to run a pair of Examination Special trains between Puri and Rourkela.

The 08446/08445 Puri-Rourkela-Puri Examination Special will leave Puri at 05.25 hours on April 28 (Saturday) and arrive at Rourkela at 15.30 hours the same day. In its return direction, the train will leave Rourkela at 21.45 hours on April 29 (Sunday) and arrive at Puri at 09.35 hours the following day. The train will stop at Khurda Road, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Talcher Road, Angul, Boinda, Rairakhol, Sambalpur City and Jharsuguda. It will have one AC-2 tier, one AC-3 tier, eight sleeper class and three general second class coaches in its composition.

Plight of Sector-22

SAMBAD reports

RSP land entangled in Bank!!

SAMBAD reports

Dilip Tirkey leads Public XI to victory

Times of India reports

ROURKELA: Recently elected Rajya Sabha MP Dilip Tirkey and two-time Rajgangpur MLA Gregory Minz - both of whom are former hockey players - enthralled the spectators with their stick work during a friendly match between Polcie XI and Public XI at Biju Pattnaik Hockey Stadium here on Thursday. The Dilip Tirkey-led Public XI finally won the match 4-2.

According to sources, the district police had organised the hockey match in an effort to improve the police-public relationship and national sporting personalities like Dilip Tirkey were invited to lead the Public XI team.

"We are glad that Dilip Tirkey had accepted our invitation gracefully and agreed to lead the Public XI team and a good number of people turned up at the stadium to see him play," said SP Himansu Lal, who played a leading role in organizing the tie.

State housing and urban development minister Sharada Nayak gave away the prizes to the winning team and appreciated the district police initiative. Rourkela Steel Plant CEO G S Prasad and DIG (WR) Y Jethwa also attended the prize distribution as guests of honour. Newly-elected RS MP Tirkey also praised the efforts of the police to reach out to the public.

Slow progress in BPUT construction!

SAMBAD reports

Minister responsible for deadlock in Municipality

Sambad reports

Vehicle lifters on the prowl

Indian Express reports

ROURKELA: Motorcycle lifting menace is back to give sleepless nights to the residents of Steel City, Uditnagar in particular. The gang which was lying low for some days is now active and there has been a spurt in lifting of two-wheelers.

Between April 5 and 15 three vehicles were stolen from the same spot in front of Pani Market Complex. A complainant Monu Agarwal has lost hope of getting back his vehicle after it was stolen 15 days back.

Notwithstanding tight policing, two-wheeler theft cases are pouring in from across the city.

Sources said on Thursday a motorcycle was stolen from near City Super Bazar, while a couple of days back two other vehicles were lifted from nearby localities, including Basanti Colony under Uditnagar police limits. These are not isolated cases as two other similar incidents have been reported from Sector-5 market area under Sector-7 police limits.

A senior police officer said in April alone nearly 50 complaints of vehicle lifting were received.

The Rourkela police had earlier achieved success in checking

the crime with the arrest of several persons and recovery of stolen vehicles.

SP Himanshu Lal said a gang comprising five to six persons are involved in vehicle lifting. He assured that the gang would be nabbed and stolen vehicles recovered soon. Sources said several youths who were jailed for thefts were released recently and it is possible that some of them have returned to the old business.

Rash driving: Highway turns death trap

Expressbuzz reports

SAMBALPUR: Industrialisation has brought with it drastic changes in the economic condition of the people in every village of Sambalpur district. The repercussions of development are acutely being felt. The purchasing power has led to an increase in the number of vehicles which in turn results in accidents due to reckless driving.

Maximum accidents are reported on State Highway 10 that connects Sambalpur with Rourkela. Deaths as a result of accidents are also reported on the 45-km stretch from Sambalpur to Jharsuguda. In the last three months, 40 persons have died in 28 accidents on the stretch.

In 2011, 60 accidents had been reported on the stretch in which 63 people died. The road was constructed at an estimated cost of `289 crore to boost industrialisation in the region.

Maximum deaths have been attributed to reckless driving by untrained truck drivers engaged by industrial houses.

A majority of the vehicles do not have rear light making it difficult for vehicles to make out traffic on the road.

Another reason stated by the locals is use of sharp head lights by the truck drivers which affects the vision of people coming from opposite direction. Moreover, trucks parked along the roads the space.

On Monday, 10 persons died in an accident while 11 others escaped with injuries at Gurupali Chhak under Rengali police limits. The pilgrimage turned tragic for three families.

A couple of hours later, another car rammed the overturned truck involved in the accident injuring three persons who were admitted to VSS Medical at Burla.

With no highway patrolling or availability of ambulance service, more casualties are being reported raising question on road safety. Even as plans to convert the road into six lanes are underway, locals fear that it would lead to more accidents.

SAIL earmarks capital expenditure of `14,500 crore for 2012-13

Financial Chronicle reports Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has earmarked capital expenditure of Rs 14,500 crore in 2012-13 as the final phase of its five year, Rs 72,000 crore modernisation and brown-field expansion plan.

“Some of the major facilities that are planned for completion in 2012-13 are new cold rolling mill at Bokaro steel plant, raw material handling system, coke oven battery, sinter plant blast furnace and wire rod mill at IISCO steel plant, sinter plant at Bokaro steel plant, coke oven battery, blast furnace at Rourkela steel plant, round cum bloom caster and medium structural mill at Durgapur steel plant,” CS Verma, chairman of SAIL told Financial Chronicle.

The culmination of the investment will help improve the state owned company’s ability to compete with its private sector counterparts. The capital expenditure will be spent on payments for various capital projects being undertaken at its Bhilai, Durgapur, Rourkela, Bokaro and Iisco steel plants.

Sanjay Jain, an analyst at Motilal Oswal said, “The company’s project is slightly behind schedule and may be completed only partially this financial year. The actual benefit of modernisation and expansion will come once the project is fully commissioned. The modernisation would boost efficiency and also improve margins of the company”.

After the modernisation and brown-field expansion SAIL’s hot metal capacity will increase to 23.4 million tonnes per annum from 14.6 million tonnes per annum. The company has been funding its Rs 72,000 crore modernisation and expansion plan through internal accruals and debt.

“We are funding the capex through a mix of debt and internal accruals. The debt equity ratio is 1:1”, said Verma. The modernisation cum expansion plan of SAIL, apart from increasing the production capacity has been envisaged to address the vital issues of elimination of technological obsolescence, installation of energy efficient and environment friendly technologiesand enhancement of raw material availability.

The commissioning of facilities in the five integrated steel plants (Bhilai, Durgapur, Rourkela, Bokaro and Iisco) has already started and the majority of modernisation and expansion is expected to get completed by 2012-13.

Kosli e-Book Titi Tian for children launched

A report from Daily Pioneer

A Kosli e-Book titled Titi Tian for primary learning of children written by Surama Mishra, editor of Paschimanchala newspaper was launched at a ceremony attended by the litterateurs of the steel city on Sunday.

Octogenarian writer Umashankar Panda from Sambalpur was the chief guest at the function. He lauded Mishra’s novel attempt for presenting a long-awaited book to the tiny tots of the Kosal region and blessed her for more creative works to enrich the Kosli literature. Noted writer of the steel city Radhu Mishra also praised Mishra for taking the pain of writing such a book for children. Chairman of Kosli Ekta Manch Gorekhnath Sahu said the book, the first of its kind, would be a milestone in the history of the Kosli language and literature.

The treasurer of the Kosal Sahitya Academy wanted 5,000 copies of the book instantaneously for distribution among students in villages. Publisher Swarup Mishra conducted an e demonstration of the book through www.akharjuden.in.

The release of the book has boosted the enthusiasm of those involved in promotion of the Kosli language and seeking its Constitutional recognition.

Meet favours HC Bench in western Odisha

Daily Pioneer reports

A Paschimanchal conclave on ‘Justification of High Court Bench in western Odisha and its achievability” organised at the Rourkela Law College conference hall on Sunday evoked lot of enthusiasm among the legal fraternity and the media circle.

The first of its kind, media intervention on a burning issue concerning the interest of the people of western Odisha at large, is only taking roots which will go a long way in mitigating the sufferings of the litigants and the lawyers of the region, speakers at the conclave observed.

The conclave inaugurated by leading advocate and social activist of Sundargarh, Nimai Charan Naik had Ashok Das, convener of the Central Action Committee (CAC) for the High Court Bench and Ramesh Bal, president of the Rourkela Bar Association as co-chairmen.

The speakers were unanimous in their view that western Odisha deserves a High Court Bench and the Government should concede to the genuine demand of the lawyers.

They also agreed that the criteria as fixed by the Yaswant Singh panel for establishment of High Court Benches in different States should be the yardstick for consideration.

The recommendations of the seminar included pressurising the State Government to adopt the motion, already kept alive for debate, in the next Assembly session and send it to the Central Government for necessary orders.

Baidyanath Mishra welcomed the delegates and presented the base paper drafted by senior advocate Gobardhan Pujari of Rourkela. Editor of Paschimanchal Surama Mishra presented the media viewpoints on the topic.

Muralidhar Parijha, president and Mihir Ray, secretary of the Rourkela Press Club, were also on the dais.

The establishment of the High Court Bench was a long standing demands of the people in the region.