With Odisha being included in the East Coast Economic Corridor (ECEC), the state government today decided to prepare Conceptual Development Plan for the first phase by March, 2017, official sources said.
The decision in this regard was taken at a high level meeting here under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary A P Padhi where India Resident Mission of ADB (Asian Development Bank) made the presentation.
The 1700 km ECEC is being jointly implemented by the Centre, Odisha government and ADB.
The meeting also resolved that the Principal Secretary of Industries would be the nodal officer for the project.
The industry department would be the nodal department for the project. The ECEC would link Odisha with global industrial corridor and value chain.
The presentation made by the ADB team revealed that the proposed project would be India's First coastal corridor.
It would cover approximately 1700 km of coastal line and connect six major ports and three of India's deepest draft ports.
The corridor would also connect the mineral-rich hinterland having 86 per cent of coal reserves, 82 per cent of iron reserves, 70 per cent of bauxite reserves and 40 per cent of natural gas reserves.
The project was likely to boost the industrial activities in Odisha more particularly in auto, electronics, petro chemicals, petroleum, iron, steel, food processing, textiles, naval shipyards, defence and space exploration, sources in industries department said.
"The project would have two basic dimensions like investments for infrastructure development and investments for node centric development," an official statement said.
Today's meeting also decided that the technical teams
of ADB would make assessment of the extent of land availability, clearance from coastal areas, flood line, forest area, other restricted areas, connectivity with highways, rail network, proximity to ports, air ports, availability of utilities like power, water proximity to existing industrial agglomerations, proximity to urban centers, availability of housing & service eco-system in urban centers, availability of skilled manpower supply, presence of skill development training and incubation facilities.
Chief Secretyary Padhi suggested industries department to make perspective plan of the project compatible with Odisha Vision-2036 Document.
The state government has already initiated Vision-2036 keeping in view completion of the 100th year of state formation.
