In a recent meeting, Environment Ministry’s Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) recommended the ONGC’s proposed Dahej SEZ in Bharuch in Gujarat for environment clearance. To be developed by Dahez SEZ Ltd (a special purpose vehicle of Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation and ONGC), the proposed complex will be spread over an estimated area of 1,500 hectares and host various petrochemical units.

Once developed to its full capacity, it is expected to attract an investment of Rs. 50,000 crore to Rs. 60,000 crore. The total cost of the project is estimated at Rs. 295 crore.

However, another Special Economic Zone (PhaEZ Park) proposed in Ahmedabad in Gujarat by private pharmaceutical firm CPL Infrastructure Pvt Ltd failed to get approval.

“The committee has sought additional information from the project proponent such as details of quality of waste water before giving it approval,” a committee member said. The project proponent has also been asked to submit a disaster management plan and emergency evacuation plan for natural and man-made disasters off site and on site. Dahej SEZ Limited promoted by Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation(GIDC) and ONGC has now only 200 hectares of land left vacant as it has so far allotted 80% of its land to 40 companies.

The SEZ is spread over 1,700 hectares, out of which 1,300 hectares can be allotted. Around 1,100 hectares have so far been allotted to around 40 companies. ONGC’s Opal as been allotted a big chunk of land for a petro chemical complex. At present, only two units in the SEZ are operational and three more are expected to begin operations before April 2010 by April this year. When in the next two to three years, the SEZ will become fully operational, it will export goods worth around Rs 60,000 crore.

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A one minute film on Pipavav Shipyard of Gujarat is presented above.

“Despite the additional collector’s opinion against giving any land to industries in Little Rann’s reserved forest, the state government has given 640 acres land to Vinod Salt, 175 acres to Lakhdhir Salt, 250 acres to Jaydip Corporation and 283.19 acres to Bipin Salt.” he alleged. He said, pointing to a letter written by the additional collector of Surendranagar for the sanctuary, wherein the latter had pointed out the irregularity. He said the additional collector had contested the veracity of the survey numbers in his letter to the state government. The letter claims that the survey number shown as being on the borders four villages does not have any supporting documents like ‘7/12 copy’, so “there is enough reason to believe that it is of the adjoining land of the sanctuary and Hadkiya creek”, he said.

“The letter also quotes the oral order of April 4, 1997 of the Gujarat High Court banning the transfer or renewal of lease of protected land of the sanctuary,” he added. “Despite the fisheries commissioner’s report of the adverse effect on the employment of the lakhs of fishermen due to a proposed power plant in Kutch, the state government has allowed that power plant,” Gohil alleged. Due to this, the fishermen and the salt agariyas of Kutch have lost their livelihood,” he said. He added that due to pollution of the state’s coastal area, the fishermen were forced to cross into Pakistani waters and ended up in jails there.

By Japan K Pathak

Busy activities here at Aditya Birla Group’s retail store ‘More’ in Ahmedabad’s Dharnidhar area. There are already overflowing visitors inside, and therefore the security men are instructing other people to form queue to enter inside. The people are also ready to cooperate. They form queue and wait for their chance to enter the store. The reason is that the store is offering 30 to 50% discount on almost all products because the Aditya Birla Group has taken a decision to wind it up.

Yes, after Subhiksha had to wind up 50 stores in Ahmedabad and Reliance Retail also scaled down its hypermarket on the SG Highway, after 6ten closed its stores and Vishal supermarket had to wind up its huge Law Garden premises, after Dev Status mall was closed to get converted into a luxurious flat scheme, the next is Aditya Birla Group’s ‘More’ stores which are likely to be closed this month.

The CEO of group’s Supermarkets decision Thomas Verghese confirming the plan says the loss-making stores of ‘More’ would be closed in whole country, not only in Gujarat in next some time.

Aditya Birla Retail at its peak, ran 36 stores in Gujarat. However after gradual closure of some loss making stores in recent past, the company had only 10 stores functioning in the state. Out of 16 stores that were launched in Ahmedabad, only five to six are operational presently, and they are likely to be closed this month only.

Back to ground zero at Dharnidhar in Ahmedabad, the customers hit by price rise are happily buying things at discount rates here. Sugar which is otherwise available at a cost of 38 Rs kg is available here at Rs 32. Packed bags of Mung and Cumin are sold at half price. Some buyers are coming from far areas, thanks to BRTS bus-stop nearby. About 50% shelves of  this ‘More’ store are now empty.  Due to high demand  of discounted items here, the group has dumped products from other branches also for speedy sell.

The youths working in this store told Gujaratmoney that this particular branch of ‘More’ was profitable, but as the group decided to wind up whole business in the city, this store too faced closure. They complained that though they offered wide range of different products, most of the people were visiting the store to buy vegetables only. At time, the management felt that their business was actually not about selling just vegetables!

Some other employees briefed GujaratMoney that rental cost, man power cost, AC bill etc was in-total a huge burden. On the other side business was  not that lucrative.

When we from GujaratMoney personally visited the store, we felt that the store was not being run with heart and certainly not with mind. Dharnidhar is pure Jain, Baniya and Brahmin dominated area. Here non-veg is a taboo. Not only eating non-veg is unacceptable but even presence of non-veg irritate the locals. You can not find a single non-veg product in about three-four square kilometer of area in this locality. But the ‘More’ store was catering range of non-veg products. I saw Chicken Masalla, Butter Chicken, Chicken Tikka mix etc completely unsalable packs on shelves. Another point is that while traditional stores  in Dharnidhar area are smaller, open(so no AC and natural light), controlled by one or two persons(one owner and one servant) and product specific(focused), the ‘More’ store is a closed one(lights and AC bringing heavy bill), employing several people(around 10 to 12) and offering range of products(defocused, some of the products not worth selling and eating dust on shelves).

A common store owner(of course a rival) in Dharnidhar area is happy with More’s retreat. One of the store owners in same locality Shri Gopalbhai Gandhi says, ” the mall and retail chain culture is temporary, we are here to serve you permanently.” Another happy person is a poor hawker who sells vegetables on his moving push cart by visiting streets. One such vegetable vendor Karsan Devipujak tells GujaratMoney,”It is Devi Mata(holly goddess)’s wish to protect us against this retail invasion. We are here, and you would see they all will have to close their stores. We have defeated Birla.”

However local women of Dharnidhar locality are not happy with More’s exit. “This was a good place to buy vegetables. Also a bag of milk was 50 paisa cheaper. This store should be replaced by similar store. This area needs such store. It is unfortunate that though this particular branch is doing good business, the group has decided to close it,” one of the local women, Mamtaben Shah a frequent visitor to this store told GujaratMoney.

The Tata Docomo website has also added “Gujarat” to its list of circles and has given tariff and other details for future consumers of Tata Docomo across the state. Tata Docomo now joins the likes of BSNL, Reliance (GSM and CDMA), Airtel, Tata Indicom (CDMA), Idea Cellular
, and Vodafone who are already big players in the state.

To keep it simple, Tata Docomo’s tariff plans in Gujarat are the same as that offered in the other circles where it operates. The plans include the Tata Docomo life time prepaid card priced at Rs. 49 and the “pay as you go” scheme, with a pulse of one second, and a charge of 1 paisa per second.

“As the government fixes oil and gas prices and also allocates the same, open market trading of the fuel cannot take place. Similarly, factors like dominance of Central public sector undertakings (PSUs) in the oil and gas sector and subsidization in sale of the products lead to distortions in the product market. In addition, infrastructural facilities are owned by PSUs, which prevent their optimum use,” he said in the keynote session – ‘Regulatory Issues in Oil & Gas Sector’. The development of a competitive market for natural gas is beneficial to the country in many ways. It can lead to better price discovery, optimal use of energy resources, optimization of infrastructure and also attract major investment in exploration & production (E&P) and transportation & distribution (T&D) infrastructure as well, he added.

According to Mr. Mansingh, lower participation of bidders under the last round of the NELP, particularly foreign biggies, indicates that the process of determining prices should be left to market forces. Mr. Mansingh also revealed that the late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr. YSR Reddy, was impressed by the significant progress made by Gujarat for the development of natural gas market and wanted his home state to become another Gujarat on this front.

“In India, only Gujarat has the functioning market for natural gas. I told him AP would have to develop infrastructure like Gujarat for T&D of gas,” said Mr. Mansingh. The total number of geographical areas (GAs) covered under the gas grid network in the country stands at 25 and is expected to rise to 86 in the next three years. Similarly, the number of vehicles using CNG as fuel is expected to rise to 33 lakh in the next five years from 7 lakh at present, he added.

The ‘ICOMPS 2010’ conference was inaugurated on Wednesday by Mr. Benno Wilhelm, Professor of Production Management, University of Lausitz, Senftenberg, Germany, Dr. Bhavesh Patel, Director, SPM, PDPU, and Professor Sudhir Yadav, SPM, PDPU, Gandhinagar.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the three-day biennial event, Dr. Bhavesh Patel said, “In today’s world, food security and energy security are given equal importance by any nation. Management of the petroleum sector is as important as discovering new oil and gas fields. Institutions like PDPU can provide a comprehensive solution to energy management.”

In his welcome address, Professor Sudhir Yadav said that the energy sector was becoming highly competitive with global concern on various fronts. ICOMPS 2010 would help stakeholders and students understand the sector properly. Professor Benno Wilhelm hailed India’s edge in innovations. Efficiency was the key element as far as the energy sector was concerned and
through innovations, India could contribute greatly to attain efficiency, he added.

State Forest minister Mangubhai Patel in reply to Kalupur(Ahmedabad) MLA Faruk Sheikh told the assembly that the state government had registered four cases against the company in this regard.

According to the Minister, in 2006 Essar encroached forest land in survey number 434/1/1 for which the Deputy Conservator of forest, Vyara had registered four complaints and action was taken under the Indian Forest Act of 1927. The first complaint was filed on 19 January, 2007. The construction on encroached land stopped thereafter. The second complaint on January 19, 2007 was related to act of clearing land and starting work on the installation of a fencing in survey no 334/A/1. The fencing attempt was terminated. The third complaint was filed on February 6, 2007 when Essar attempted to build houses on the forest land. The construction work was stopped in survey no 178 and 181. The last complaint was filed on October 30, 2007 to initiate the process of removing the encroachment in total, but the task has not been completed yet.

Surat’s Assistant Public Prosecutor and the Assistant Government Pleader had recommended action against four officers: two range forest surveyors, one surveyor and the DILR office’s surveyor. A commission inquiring into the Surat floods of 2006 had said that Essar’s encroachment of land in Surat district and the Hazira area was one of the factors responsible for the calamity.

The Surat-based Luthra group is planning to build a 5-star hotel in Surat in tie-up with Hyatt Regency for managing the property.

According to Girish Luthra, Chairman of Luthra group, a super deluxe 5-star 225-room hotel targeted at the very high-end customers with banquet facilities, spa, health club and convention centre would come up at Abhwa village near Surat airport with an investment of around Rs 140 crore.

As of now a process to rope in an international architect is on, according to Luthra.

Luthra group recently commissioned a textile park near Surat and now also planning to set up a textile embroidery park ‘Gujarat Eco Fashion Textile Park’ that is likely to attract an investment of around Rs 400 crore.

Luthra Group website

Hyatt Group website

The vessels INS Makar and INS Meen would be stationed in Vishakhapatnam to become part of a fleet of six ships being built by AAGL for Indian Navy under total Rs 800 crore assignment.

The vessel would conduct coastal hydrographic survey of  ports and harbours, their approaches and would also conduct limited oceanographic survey. Such surveys are carried out by the Navy to decide a route in the ocaean that can be used by commercial and naval ships for navigation.

The AAGL made catamarans are equipped with basic coastal defence, search, rescue and research capability. Each vessel with huge deck displaces about 500 tonnes of water and can operate at special low survey speed of 0-6 knots and a maximum speed of over 18 knots. The ship would accommodate six officers, around 40 sailors and 6 scientists on board. Interestingly AAGL was awarded this assignment not because it’s a government company, but through a competitive bidding process in which private players had also participated.

The AAGL Website

GIHED website