Odisha in 2021 Central Budget

[Chitta]

The budget speech is at https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/doc/Budget_Speech.pdf . Based on a quick glance at it I came across a few items directly relevant to Odisha. 

The first one is a direct mention:

108. I am proposing substantial investments in the development of modern fishing harbours and fish landing centres. To start with, 5 major
fishing harbours – Kochi, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Paradip, and Petuaghat will be developed as hubs of economic activity. We will also develop inland fishing harbours and fish-landing centres along the banks of rivers and waterways.

The second one is something Odisha should pursue to be among the 9 cities:

119. Many of our cities have various research institutions, universities, and colleges supported by the Government of India. Hyderabad for example, has about 40 such major institutions. In 9 such cities, we will create formal umbrella structures so that these institutions can have better synergy, while also retaining their internal autonomy. A Glue Grant will be set aside for this purpose.

Odisha is losing out on urban infrastructure. It should propose a Bhubaneswar-Cuttack metro with a starting line running between Cuttack Bus stand and Bhubaneswar airport through Patia and Chandrasekharpur.

57. We will work towards raising the share of public transport in urban areas through expansion of metro rail network and augmentation of city bus service. A new scheme will be launched at a cost of `18,000 crores to support augmentation of public bus transport services. The scheme will facilitate deployment of innovative PPP models to enable private sector players to finance, acquire, operate and maintain over 20,000 buses. The scheme will boost the automobile sector, provide fillip to economic growth, create employment opportunities for our youth and enhance ease of mobility for urban residents.

58. A total of 702 km of conventional metro is operational and another 1,016 km of metro and RRTS is under construction in 27 cities. Two new technologies i.e., ‘MetroLite’ and ‘MetroNeo’ will be deployed to provide metro rail systems at much lesser cost with same experience, convenience and safety in Tier-2 cities and peripheral areas of Tier-1 cities.

59. Central counterpart funding will be provided to:

a. Kochi Metro Railway Phase-II of 11.5 km at a cost of `1957.05 crores.
b. Chennai Metro Railway Phase-II of 118.9 km at a cost of `63,246 crores.
c. Bengaluru Metro Railway Project Phase 2A and 2B of 58.19 km at a cost of `14,788 crores.
d. Nagpur Metro Rail Project Phase-II and Nashik Metro at a cost of`5,976 crores and `2,092 crores respectively.

[Chitta]