 "Odisha okays new industrial policy")
"The IPR 2015 has been approved after several rounds of consultation with different administrative departments and industry associations. Stress has been laid on infrastructure development in the latest IPR. The striking feature is the grant of employment based incentives," said chief secretary G C Pati.
IPR has identified various focus sectors for the next five years, such as auto & auto components, downstream and ancillary industries, agro and food processing, IT and ESDM (electronic system design & manufacturing), tourism, civil aviation and manufacturing in aviation, pharma, handicrafts and textiles and petroleum & petro chemicals.
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The cabinet also gave its nod to the state capital region improvement of power system (SCRIPS) scheme with an outlay of Rs 1,500 crore.
The scheme, to be implemented from 2015-16 to 2019-20, is aimed at ensuring availability of quality and uninterrupted power to the consumers in the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.
"The SCRIPS scheme will be implemented entirely out of state's own finances. In 2015-16, the government had a provision of Rs 50 crore for the scheme. In the subsequent Budgets, the state government would earmark Rs 350-400 crore every year for the SCRIPS. The scheme would have different components like underground cabling of important lines, smart grid and SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition)," said Suresh C Mohapatra, principal secretary (energy).
The scheme is being taken up given the surge in base of electricity consumers. The electricity consumer base in the state has grown by 51 per cent in the last eight years compared to population growth of 17 per cent over the same period.
The project envisages renovation, modernisation and expansion of the existing transmission and distribution infrastructure with an objective to ensure 24x7 power supply to all classes of consumers in the geographical areas covered under the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. The project is expected to benefit over three million electricity consumers.
Biju Expressway, an ambitious scheme of the state government to upgrade road connectivity in Naxal infested regions, also received the Cabinet's nod. The length of this economic corridor stretching from Rourkela to Jagdalpur (Chhattisgarh) is pegged at 650.64 km.
Out of this, the state government would develop 307.44 km of roads into four-lane at an estimated cost of Rs 3,630 crore, of which land acquisition cost is Rs 611 crore.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) would develop 183.2 km of this corridor while the 160 km Sambalpur-Rourkela state highway is being widened to four-lane standard on the PPP (public private partnership) mode. To promote investments in the emerging ESDM (electronics system design and manufacturing) space, the state cabinet approved a slew of incentives.
"Those investors with investment exceeding Rs 200 crore and offering employment potential of over 500 would be entitled to 25 per cent investment subsidy on capital investment subject to a ceiling of Rs 50 crore. Further, if their project is financed by public sector banks, the state government would offer an interest subvention of five per cent," said P K Jena, principal secretary, IT and water resources.
The cabinet decided to change the names of two departments. While the IT department has been renamed as the department of electronics and IT, the department of employment, technical education & training would henceforth be referred to as the department of skill development and technical education.