Other Small Scale Industries
Among the other industries beverages, tobacco, gur and
molasses are important. The tobacco industry is wide spread and provides
employment to large number of persons. In bidi production, the
old districts of sambalpur, Sundergarh, Bolangir, Keonjhar ,Cuttack and Balasore are important.
Although Orissa has a large cattle population, it imports
leather goods .The principal centres of leather products are Baudh,
Bhanjanagar,
Bolangir and Keonjhar. Modern tanneries have been set up at Cuttack and Khariar
Road. This industry is run primarily on family lines, the 'Mochis ' and 'Chamars'
being the two castes engaged in it.
Oil pressing is a traditional occupation run on caste and
family line. Mustard, groundnut, castor and til seeds are the principal raw
materials used.
Some villages specialize in brass products, but owing to competition
from the large manufacturing concerns, especially those manufacturing
aluminium
utensils, this cottage industry is decaying. The high price of brass is another
handicap.
Production of inks, paints and varnishes, soap, wood and wood
products also employ a large number of persons in the towns. For jewellery and
filigree work, Cuttack and Berhampur are famous. Stone carving is important in
Puri. The salt industry is being modernised at Huma in Ganjam district
and at Astarang in Puri district. A large number of small and medium industries have been
developed in the industrial suburbs of cities like Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and
Sambalpur. Industrial estates have come up at Chaudwar and Jagatpur near Cuttack. At
Chaudwar, a paper mill and a cotton textile mill are
functioning. At Jagatpur, a large number of consumer goods industries have been
developed.
The Industrial estate of Bhubaneswar has been developed at
Rasulgarh and Mancheswar. The most important among these is the coach building
unit at Mancheswar. This factory is being operated by the Indian Railways. The
Orissa Milk Federation Chilling unit, the largest of its kind is also located at
Mancheswar. The Konark TV factory is located at Rasulgarh.
In the industrial estate of
Sambalpur, a large number of small
industries have been established which are consumer oriented. A straw board
factory is located near Dhama by the side of a tributary of the Mahanadi. In the industrial neighbourhood of
Rourkela, a large number of
small and medium industries have been set up based on products of the steel
plant.
POWER
Availability of cheap, adequate and uninterrupted power supply
is an essential prerequisite for industrialisation. In Orissa, power is
generated from two sources: thermal (non-renewable) and hydel (renewable). Hydel
power is being generated from the perennial rivers like Mahanadi at Hirakud,
Brahmani at Rengali, Machkund at Balimela and Machkund waterfall and Kolab. Thermal power is being generated from coal, mined at Talcher in
the Brahmani valley and at the Rampur-Hingir coal fields in the IB valley.
Talcher coal is suitable for blending with Coking coal from Jharia, which is being used in the blast furance at Rourkela
steel plant.
Orissa's power generation growth is phenomenal. It was only 9.6
MW during the first plan, 260 MW during the second and 429 MW during the third.
The state installed capacity in August 1991 at the end of the seventh
plan, stood at 1611.5 MW while the unrestricted demand was 1271.0 MW and
availability of power was only 712 MW. This power deficit is crippling the
growth of industries in the state. The daily demand for power is more but the supply is limited.
Power loss during transmission is another major problem.
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