Communication is Biggest Hurdle for All Round Developments in KBK: A Proposal to Improve it!

Poor connectivity between the state capital and all the KBK districts is largely hindering all types of development work in this region.

Railway Connectivity: Four steps are required.

(1) A KBK heart line covering state's bordering region:

Malkangiri (Malkangiri Dist) – Boipariguda (Koraput Dist)- Jeypore (Koraput Dist) – Boriguma (Koraput Dist) -Nabarangapur (Nabarangapur Dist)– Maidalpur (Nabarangapur Dist) – Ampani (Kalahandi Dist)– Dharamgarh (Kalahandi Dist) - Golamunda (Kalahandi Dist)- Sinpali (Nuapada Dist) - Khariar (Nuapada Dist)– Nuapada (Nuapada Dist)– Padampur (Bargarh Dist)- Bargarh (Nuapada Dist)

(2) A Line to Connect Bhawanipatna to Bhubaneswar via Phulbani:

Dharamgarh (Kalahandi Dist) - Junagarh (Kalahandi Dist)- Lanjigarh Road (Kalahandi Dist)– Baliguda (Kandhamal Dist)- Phulbani (Kandhamal Dist)– Dashapalla (Nayagarh Dist)– Nayagarh (Nayagarh Dist)– Khordha

(3) A Line to Connect Balangir to Bhubaneswar via Sonepur and Boudh:

Balangir (Balangir Dist) – Sonepur (Subarnapur Dist)– Boudh (Boudh Dist)– Dashapalla (Nayagarh Dist)– Nayagarh (Nayagarh Dist)– Khordha


(4) A Line to Connect Koraput to Bhubaneswar via Rayagada, Gajpati, and Ganjam:

Koraput (Koraput Dist) – Rayagada (Rayagada Dist)– Gunpur (Rayagada Dist) – Ramagiri Udayagiri (Gajpati Dist)– Digapahandi (Ganjam Dist)– Berhampur (Ganjam Dist)- Gopalpur (Ganjam Dist)

Near Jayapore KBK Heart Line would meet Koraput-Bhubaneswar Line and in Dharamgarh KBK Heart Line would meet Bhawanipatan - Bhubaneswar Line. Nuapada road has a link to Titlagarh that would serve to link with Balangir - Bhubaneswar Line.

These four lines would cover all the backward region inculding 11 KBK districts as well as whole South Western Orissa and will also link KBK region with Gopalpur port and Bhaubaneswar.

Nabarangpur, Sonepur, Boudh, Kandhamal, Malkangiri, and Gajpati districts would not only have first time railway links but also would serve as transition points for KBK region bringing more business to the local community.

Note: For the above four railway lines few railway links are already made and few are under proposal, other links should be considered in an urgent basis both by state and central governments as well as by East Coast Railway. Please also refer Prof Baral's article in this site for greater details.

Road Connectivity:
State government should also think the above four routes to make four way highway to link major KBK towns with state capital directly such as:

(i) Nuapada - Balangir - Sonepur - Boudh - Nayagarh - Khordha

(ii) Nuapada/Nabarangpur - Bhawanipatna - Phulbani - Nayaharh - Khordha

(iii) Malkangir/Nabarangpur - Jeyapore - Koraput - Rayagada - Ramagiri Udayagiri - Berhampur-Khordha

PS: In the name of KBK other regions may take attention by bringing regional issues based on east, west, north and south Orissa. Directly linking state capital with every districts would help to dilute this regional divisions and encourage development work distributing in all the parts and districts of Orissa equally.

Comment: Statesman on March 1, 2007, PDF, reports Kalahandi was ignored in railway budget, whereas Samaja on April 27, 2007, PDF, reports similar ignorance for Koraput, Nabarangpur and Malkangiri by railway.

Pending railway work in KBK:
New track: Junagarh - Lanjigarh Road and Balangir - Khordha Road;
Broad gauge conversion: Rayagada - Gunpur - Nuapada (in Andhra)

(This was also published in Odisha.com on April 29, 2007, PDF)

Professor Chitta Baral's letter to CM for Setting up Universities and/or Government Medical Colleges in KBK

Dear Naveen babu:

I just came across an article about our beloved swargiya Biju babu and the achievements of his government during 1961-1967. During that time he established many things including the following:

Paradeep Port
Daitari-Paradeep highway
Mig factory in Sunabeda
Rourkela Steel Plant
Regional Research Laboratory
Regional College of Education
Berhampur University
Sambalpur University
Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology
Sainik School
Baragarh Cement factory
Various factories of IDC
Orissa textile mills (OTM)
Kalinga Tubes
Kalinga Iron works

As you will notice, the above list includes three universities (in Bhubaneswar, Berhampur and Sambalpur), RRL and Sainik School.

Your government has embarked on a similar trajectory. However, the various institutions of higher education that have so far been announced by your government are all (except the enhancement of Orissa School of Mining Engineering) centered around the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack area. This includes Ravenshaw University, IIIT, NISER, Utkal Univ of Culture, Vedanta Univ, Sri Sri's proposed university, ICFAI and Capital Medical College.

May I humbly request that like your father you take a broader perspective and spread
the higher education cheer across Orissa.

Please consider

(i) Setting up universities and/or govt. medical colleges, one each in each of the undivided KBK districts. (say in Koraput, Bhawanipatna and Balangir)

(ii) Upgrading UCE Burla to Orissa University of Engineering and Applied Sciences,
similar to BESU (Bengal Engg and Science U) and CUSAT (Cochin Univ of Sc and Tech).
The farsighted steps taken by the Bengal and Keral govt. paid rich dividend in that these two are among the ones shortlisted to become IIT cousins.

I wrote an earlier mail to you with more possibilities, but this time let me just mention these two.

sincerely,

Chitta Baral

ps -- I am from Jajpur Rd. and grew up in BBSR. I have no vested interest in Burla or KBK except that I would like the new higher education initiatives to be spread around Orissa.


Chitta Baral
Professor, Arizona State University

Herbal medicine garden in Jeypore

April 15, 2007,
OUR CORRESPONDENT

Bhubaneswar, April 14: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today inaugurated a medicinal plants’ garden and conservation centre named after his father at MS Swaminathan Research Centre in Koraput district.

The Biju Patnaik Medicinal Plants’ Garden and Research Centre aims at preserving about 1,750 rare plants and herbs that were abundantly available in the jungles of undivided Koraput.

Inaugurating the centre, Naveen said he was hopeful that the research centre would work towards unravelling the therapeutic value of medicinal plants and herbs.

The MS Swaminathan Foundation has also planned to set up a herbal bio-valley at Tola village in Jeypore block of Koraput. The centre will establish a research, training and capacity building centre in the district for strengthening situ and ex-situ conservation and for undertaking validation and identification of active bio-molecules, sources said.

Work on the Biju Patnaik Medicinal Plants’ Garden and Research Centre started three years ago. Twelve acres of land, adjacent to Jeypore town, was allotted by the state government to MSSRF.

Meanwhile, the MSSRF is likely to assign an acre of land to all the predominant tribes of the district for cultivating the medicinal plants they use for their healthcare needs.

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Medical College would be Established in Koraput

Sambad, April 25, 2007, reports a modern medical college would be established in Koraput near Duruguda. This was announced by Mr Bhimsen Bhatra, the president of AOCSA. For this purpose 750 crores will be spent and state government will provide 29.9 acres of land to the organization.
Details in PDF

Comment: The proposed medical colleges in KBK region so far are private colleges and NOT a single one solely by state government

Making Medical College in Capital instead of in KBK Region raises Question!

Tathya.in, April 11, 2007 discloses that being a veteran Cuttacki, Dasverma presently staying at Richland in USA said that he is at loss over setting up another medical college at Bhubaneswar just 20 km ahead, while the SCB Medical college is languishing due to funds shortage and infrastructure lacunae.

More than that neither the North Orissa districts from Balasore to Sundargarh have any medical facility worth the name nor South Orissa beyond Berhampur has a hospital of good standard, Dasverma added.

And these are distances of 300 km up and yet this Government builds another medical college and hospital at Bhubaneswar, where another two private Medical colleges are coming up.

While making pungent remarks he said with such friends Orissa does not need any enemies, do we?, he asked.

Dasverma dubbed all the talk of KBK development as bunkum.

Else I would guess this medical college would have gone to Jeypore or Koraput, is not it? He repeated his quiz.

Details in PDF

Orissa Opposition asks for Centre's intervention on KBK Development

The Hindu, April 17, 2007 reports, in a letter to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the president of Orissa Gana Parishad (OGP) Bijay Mohapatra, secretary of the state unit of CPI(M) Janardan Pati, secretary of the state unit of CPI Nityananda Pradhan and general secretary of the state unit of Janata Dal(S) Krushna Chandra Patra viewed as "undue and unjust" when several projects like the regional centre of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), oil refinery project of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) at Paradip, National Institute of Sciences, IIT or the development of KBK region did not attract such attention from the PMO.
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The same story covered by Financial Express, April 17, 2007. PDF

Residential girls' schools in KBK under Biju KBK Yojana

Zeenews on April 11, 2007 reports 110 hostels would be constructed in the KBK region during the current financial year under the Biju KBK Yojana of Orissa state government. The undivided districts of Koraput, Kandhamal and Gajapati would be accorded priority where the female literacy rate was the lowest. PDF

KBK+ and literacy

KBK: Indian Railways' forgotten frontier

Chitta Baral, Professor, Arizona State University, chitta@gmail.com

By all measures the achievements of Indian Railways over the last two years have been phenomenal and everyone associated with this turnaround, and especially the railway minister Mr. Lalu Yadav, deserve all the kudos that are coming their way. The brochure on Railways at http://infrastructure.gov.in/ highlights some of the achievements till October 2006. It mentions that the freight and passenger traffic growing at the rate of 9.4% and 7.4% respectively during the last two years as opposed to historical growth at 3-4%. Recent news items mention Railways having a profit of Rs 13,000 crores in 2005-06 and anticipating a profit of Rs 20,000 in 2006-07.

These achievements and the resulting euphoria has propelled the Railways towards many ambitious and further profit making plans such as a dedicated freight corridor. However, there is a worry that in this euphoria the Indian railways may forget its social responsibilities. The goal of Indian Railways is not to be a profit making arm of the Indian government -- the Indian government is not a business enterprise, but rather a self sustaining unit that fulfills its social responsibilities and provides for part of the infrastructure needed for India's economic growth. So making profit is a good goal for IR; but at the same time it must not lose sight of its social responsibilities. As the 2007 Railway budget and the 11th five year plan looms we would like to hereby remind the IR and the planning commission some of the social aspects of IR that they both should keep in mind and that have a chance of getting overlooked by the Indian Railways drive for profit.

There is a great disparity in terms of railway density -- Route kms per one thousand sq km -- across various states of the country. Using the 2004-05 figures, the average rail density for India is 19.13. The rail density is highest in Delhi (138.2) followed by West Bengal (43.4), Punjab (41.6), Haryana (36.1), Bihar (35.9), Uttar Pradesh (35.8), Tamil Nadu (32.1), Assam (31.9), Kerala (27), Gujarat (26.9) and Jhrakhand (24.3). Among the major states outside Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir the lowest rail density is in Himachal Pradesh (5.1), followed by Uttarakhand (6.4), Chhatisgarh (8.6), Orissa (14.6), Karnataka (15.5), Madhya Pradesh (15.9), Rajasthan (17), Maharashtra (17.9), Goa (18.6) and Andhra Pradesh (18.9).

While the importance of having adequate Railway infrastructure in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast has been realized the same is not the case with respect to the other frontier of India that lies in the interior. With respect to the North east the planning commission aims to break the sense of isolation associated with it. Several projects for the NE have been planned during the 11th five year plan including extending tracks to Kohima, laying lines inside Meghalaya, and possibly a line to Itanagar. A line to Agartala is nearing completion.

By the other frontier of India I mean the area that includes the KBK region of Orissa, parts of Chhatisgarh, parts of Andhra Pradesh etc. The Rail density in this area is very low, the population of this area is mostly tribals, several districts of these areas are listed

among the most backward districts of India, and big part of these areas are extremist infested. In other words this area is farther from the mainstream India than most of North east and Jammu and Kashmir. But this area abounds in mineral resources and thus generates a lot of revenue for the Railways. Yet the Railways have severely neglected this area and its people.

This has not gone unnoticed. The Planning Commission in its report comparing the development status of economic infrastructure of Orissa, especially the KBK region, vis-a-vis the country says: "Railways have always played an important role in the economic

development and rapid social transformation in all parts of the globe. It is one of the key economic infrastructures. However, it is most unfortunate that in a poor and backward state like Orissa, development of rail networks has received much less attention of the Central government in the post-independence period." Similarly in analyzing the 69 backward districts of India Bibek Debroy and Laveesh Bhandari say: "Rail network is significantly less dense in the backward districts (with the exception of Northern Bihar), and even the parts that are connected may not have frequent trains serving those locations."

Hence, although the 2005-06 Railway budget significantly increased its allocation to projects in Orissa over previous years, the 11^th five year plan should aim to finish and the 2007 budget should have generous allocations towards some of the unfinished connectivity in the above mentioned forgotten frontier straddling Orissa, Chhatisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. This includes the lines Khurda Rd - Balangir, Nuapada-Gunupur-Theruvali, LanjigarhRd-Junagarh-Nawarangpur-Jeypore-Malkangiri, Baripada- Bangiriposi-...-Tatanagar, Durg-Dallirajhara-Jagdalpur, Rajahmundry- Bhadrachalam Rd. and connecting Malkangiri, Kirandul and Manguru.

There are several other dangling lines in the above mentioned states where the end points are mining locations. The resulting lack of connectivity has resulted in almost zero passenger services and as a result local inhabitants, mostly tribals, often travel on the roof

of freight trains and this has resulted in several tragic incidents with loss of lives. Some of these end points are Barsuan, Kiriburu, Gua, Bolanikhadan, Badampahar and Gurumahisani and the 11th plan must aim to connect as many of them as possible through the already surveyed and/or initiated connections such as Talcher-Barsuan, Keonjhar- Badampahar and Bangiriposi-Gurumahisani.

An irony is that the freight operations in these areas have contributed significantly to the Railways profits, but yet the Railways has hesitated in focusing on completing the above mentioned lines. For example, for the 2003-2004 and 2004-05 the working expense as part of gross earnings of the ECOR zone is the second best at 66.64% and 61.75% respectively. The other profit making zones in those years are South east central (62.8% and 56.1%), North central (76.33% and 66.71%), Central (80.29% and 82.48%), South eastern (81.24% and 83.51%), South Central (85.72% and 83.62%), West Central (80.99% and 84.08%), South Western (91.35% and 86.15%), Western (93.21% and 90.85%), Northern (91.08% and 92.89%) and East Central (93.65% and 98.9%). The loss making zones are metro Kolkata (247% and 264.38%), North Eastern (151.93% and 160.88%), Northeast Frontier (147.98% and 159.45%), Eastern (161.3% and 152.84%), Southern (118.55% and 120.79%) and North Western (106.26% and 104.98%).

The above is illuminating; in some sense the poor and backward tribals and their land in ECOR is generating profits that is being ploughed into subsidizing the commuters in metro Kolkata. In the coming years additional metro lines are under works. This includes 146.5 Km in Mumbai at a cost of Rs. 19,525 crores, two lines in Bangalore covering 33 km at a cost of Rs. 6,207 crores, a three line Hyderabad metro of 66 km at the cost of Rs 8,760 crores, etc. No doubt, for speedier implementation part of the above will be borne by the states, but what about the operating expenses in the future years? These cities are drivers of India's growth and investment in them is good for India. But in the process let us not forget the tribals of Chhatisgarh and the KBK districts of Orissa. Such constant neglect of their well being is perhaps why extremists have been able to make inroads into those areas.

Switching gears let us now consider another aspect of the Indian Railways. With 1.6 million employees it is the largest employer in the world. With its aim to significantly grow in the coming years there will be opportunities for the establishments of new employment centers such as new production units. For example, it is reported that the recently announced Rail Coach factory in Rae Bareli at a cost of 1000 crores will provide direct employment to 5000 people and indirect employment to another 10,000; and the Rail engine factory in Bdhaura in Bihar's Saran district at a cost of Rs 1000 crore will give direct employment to 5000 people and indirect employment to another 10,000.

When establishing such units IR must look at regional balance and distribute them across the country. Its recent announcements of a Rail coach factory in Rae Bareli (the constituency of Mrs. Sonia Gandhi) and Bihar (the home state of the Railway minister) do not quite give the Indian people the confidence that IR is looking at regional balance. Note that IR's current major production units are the Railway Coach factory in Kapurthala (Punjab), Integral Coach factory in Perambur near Chennai, Diesel loco works in Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh), Chittaranjan Loco works in Chittaranjan (West Bengal), Diesel-loco modernisation works in Patiala (Punjab) and Wheel and Axle plant in Bangalore (Karnataka) and during Lalu's recent visit to Kerala it has been reported that he has promised setting up of a bogey and parts manufacturing unit and an electric multiple unit in Kerala. IR must tabulate all these and try its best to spread the cheer across the country not just in specific states from where some special people come from.

Finally IR must watch out the activity of some of the older railway zones that seem to have not gotten over the zone splits and as a result have knowingly or unknowingly acted in a way detrimental to states that are part of that zone but do not contain the HQ of that zone. For example, CAG reported that while the gauge conversion of the Rupsa-Bangiriposi section (in Orissa) in South Eastern Railway (SER) zone was conceived as an alternate to the third line between Kharagpur and Tatanagar, SER adopted a mixed track structure instead of conforming to the standard required to run heavy haul trains, thereby defeating the basic objective of providing an alternate route to the heavy haul freight traffic. If SER is not interested in these lines, and is wasting Railways money, may be the railway ministry can consider taking them away from SER and give it to ECOR.

Lack of healthcare results in death of 19 children in KBK

Kalinga Times, April 19, 2007, reports absence of healthcare facility and blind belief among the primitive tribal people in Orissa's Malkangiri district has led to the death of at least 19 tribal children during the past fortnight. PDF

Sops fail to motivate doctors in KBK

State govenrment announced special incentives to doctors in KBK, Kandamal, Boudh and Gajpati districts, The New Indian Express, April 8, 2007. PDF

However, The New Indian Express on April 17, 2007 reports even incentive by state government fails to motivate doctors to work in the 11 districts of KBK. PDF

In the mean time The New Indian Express, April 19, 2007, reported staf crunch hits health service in Kalahandi. PDF

A university in KBK remains a far cry

This article in Kalinga Times, focuses state government's negligence for a state university in the KBK region. Not a single state university, state government medical college and state government engineering college was ever established in KBK region.
PDF


A Letter to CM in this regard, host Hindtoday

Proposal for a multicampus KBK central university by Prof Chitta Baral

A proposal for a multicampus KBK central university by Prof Chitta Baral, Arizona State University, USA, Word File, PDF, has been forwarded by the state government to the government of India.

Prof Baral's article published in Indian Express for central university in KBK region.

Benefits of National Higher Educational Institutes in KBK: A Case Study on Kalahandi

This article summarizes the need of national higher educational institutes in Kalahandi and their benefits to the region.
PDF

A similar article focusing on higher education in Kalahandi and raising why Kalahandi repeats its own fate even after four decades was published in Pratusruti Plus, March 1-15, 2007.
PDF, please see Page 5 for the article.

Articles published in the Pioneer, PDF and Tathya, PDF towards higher educational institutes in Kalahandi.

Demand for an IIPH in KBK region of Orissa, published in Tathya, PDF

Business Hub in KBK; a dire need

Tatha.in, March 21, 2007

Bhawanipatna:21/March/2007
Imagine Visakhapatnam is the major centre for health care and education centre for the whole Southern and South Western Orissa.

Majority of the revenues generated in health sector in this city comes from Orissa fueling growth in medication and hospitality sectors in Andhra Pradesh.

And the state government raises revenue and employment opportunity for the local community grows.

Similarly Raipur, the Capital city of Chhatisgarh is the common man’s commercial center for textiles, home and agricultural appliances and machineries for the whole KBK and part of western Orissa regions.

Money earned in Orissa is finally spent in neighboring states for medication, education, textiles, home and agricultural appliances and machineries making Orissa a big loser.

The amount of business done by Orissa people in these two neighboring cities may relatively look a small portion compared to the whole state, however, when counted in total common people parlance in the bordering districts of Andhra Pradesh and Chhatisgarh we do spend a large sum directly or indirectly in Visakhapatnam or Raipur for above reasons.

Raipur and Visakhapatnam could establish themselves as commercial centers for common man in last two decades largely by fulfilling the requirements of people living in the bordering districts of Southern and Western districts of Orissa.

Its also true that major bordering towns of Orissa like Berhampur, Sambalpur, and Rourkela could make a mark but it was only up to the district level and without impacting largely on the inter-district or inter-state commercial success.

In fact in health sector Visakhaptanam became popular among the people of Orissa not because of love for Andhra Pradesh but for poor facilities in Sambalpur and Berhampur medical college and hospital.

Poor infrastructure is the main bottleneck as there is no direct and proper railway and road connectivity to the state capital from the KBK and other bordering regions.

And secondly failure of service centers and down stream industries in Orissa has weaken the economic growth of these urban centres.

Though recently state government has taken initiatives to establish many private engineering & medical colleges and universities in Orissa, revive the SSI sector of Orissa and promote ancillary as well as downstream industries but absence of commercial hubs have resulted in siphoning of large chunk of money from Orissa to neighbouring states.

In order to arrest the money flow it is pertinent to establish at least seven commercial business hubs at Bhawanipatna, Koraput, Berhampur, Balasore, Keonjhar, Rourkela, and Sambalpur keeping common man's commercial requirements in various sectors.

And connecting all of these place directly by road and railway with the major commercial business center at Cuttack-Bhubaneswar corridor will go a long way.

As size of western and northern borders of Orissa is quite large enough and geographically covers a large area of the state, later on two more commercial business hubs could also be established at Bolangir and Baripada.

As many as seven to nine commercial business hubs would cover the whole Orissa and money fly can be arrested which will bring new opportunities.

At this moment Bhawanipatna and Koraput urgently need special attention in this regard as these regions dish out maximum percent of their earning by common man to the neighboring states for the above reasons.

Are the town planners and Urban sector honchos listening ?

By Dr Digambara Patra Visiting Lecturer (Department of Physics, Waseda University, Tokyo)

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