Festive fever grips Ganjam and South Odisha on Kumar Purnima

Source: The Sambad

Immersion ceremony brings down the curtain on Durga Puja In BAMP

Bengalis, Gujaratis celebrate Durga Puja in Silk City

Adi Shakti Tara Tarini near Berhampur, Odisha

BERHAMPUR: They are living far away from their homelands. But, Bengali and Gujarati settlers of Berhampur have been celebrating Durga Puja in their traditional way for years. The Bengalis started celebrating puja for the first time in the Silk City around 79 years ago.  "Durga Puja is an integral part of Bengali culture. We celebrate the autumn festival wherever we reside," said A K Sarkar, president of Adi Durga Puja Committee in the town. The rituals started on Sunday. "As we started the Durga Puja in the town for the first time, we named it Adi (first) Durga Puja," said Narayan Saha, a member of the Bengali community. Some Bengali employees of the erstwhile Bengal-Nagpur Railway organized the first Durga Puja of the community in the railway station area in 1932.

The Bengalis have already established a permanent pandal at Chatterjee Lane, near Old Bus Stand in Barracks. "We have been celebrating the puja on the pandal since 1938," said Ashok Kumar Jana, a member of the puja committee. "Not only Bengali families in the town but also people of other faiths gather here during the puja," said Deepa Rani Chakladar, a Bengali. It's also an occasion for a get-together of all Bengali families in the town. A large chunk of Bengali families are living in the Silk City. "Even though we are living away from Bengal, we are not alienated from the Bengali culture," said P K Sarkar, secretary of the committee. Priests and artists to make the idol are brought from West Bengal. "Our aim is to keep the tradition alive," said Susanta Ghose, another Bengali.

Similarly, Gujaratis celebrate Navaratri too. Gujarati girls perform "Garaba raj" and "Dandia" dances during the period. "We celebrate the festival in our traditional manner even though we have settled here since long," said Naresh Vagheal, a Gujarati the community which has a strong presence in the city.

Source: Times of India

Source: The Sambad

Durga puja celebrations reach feverish pitch in Berhampur

Source: The Sambad

Railway neglect for Berhampur continues unabated

Source: The Sambad

Modern flower market and training centre for floriculture inaugurated in Berhampur

A modern flower market and training centre for floriculture was inaugurated at Ambapua area of the city by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday. The project was aimed at promoting floriculture in six districts -- Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada, Koraput, Kandhamal, Boudh, and Nayagarh. It was established at a cost of Rs. 2.55 crore. Out of it, Rs. 1.92 crore was sanctioned under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikash Yojna and the remaining amount was invested by Regulated Market Committee (RMC), Digapahandi. Members of Ganjam District Flower Growers’ Association (GDFGA) welcomed establishment of the centre. They said it was their long- standing demand and finally their dream came true. The modern flower market at the centre would provide all facilities for proper marketing of flower collected from growers to increase their profit.

Flower grading

It has a receiving dock, flower grading area, modern cooling chamber for preservation of flowers, and a florist-flower distribution area. It has packing centre where flowers would be packed in scientific process so that they could be transported to far off places. The centre also has a dormitory for flower growers coming from outside, an auction hall, and a well-facilitated conference hall. GDFGA secretary Sridhar Verma said the flower market was on par with any modern flower market centre in the country.

Training

Mr. Verma said it was planned to train 5,000 farmers of six districts regarding intricacies of floriculture during the first phase. During the training, farmers would be trained in hi-tech floriculture. They would be provided indepth knowledge about plantation, micro irrigation, flowering plant protection, and their management by experts during the training process. Flower growers, who attended the inaugural function, felt the centre would give a fillip to commercial floriculture.

Source: The Hindu

Berhampur keen to host a neat & clean puja

BERHAMPUR: The Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BMC) has asked puja committees and traders in the town to keep their surroundings clean during Dussehra as the Silk City recently saw an outbreak of dengue. "We have asked puja organizers to ensure the pandal surroundings are clean. Similarly, business establishments have also been asked to dump garbage only in dustbins. Sweepers of the BMC will collect the garbage from their doorsteps," BMC commissioner A K Mohanty said.

"Sanitation is essential as thousands of people visit the city every day during Dussehera to have a glimpse of decorated pandals and idols, as well as for shopping. We have also talked to officials of Ganjam Chamber of Commerce (GCC) in this regard. We will write to them again so that the traders put up dustbins at their establishments, at least during the Puja period," the commissioner said.

A meeting between the BMC officials and puja organizers was held here on Wednesday. The town will have at least 60 community pujas. While rituals have already started at some of these pandals since Mahalaya, at some places puja will begin from Mahasthami.

Mayor S S Das said the civic body would extend all possible cooperation to the puja committees in order to keep their pandal premises neat and clean.

Ganjam district malaria officer U K Mishra said almost 50 per cent of the dengue positive cases in the district were reported from Berhampur. In view of this, maintaining cleanliness during the puja is a must.

The BMC commissioner also said anti-mosquito fogging drives would continue in the town during the puja. At least four fogging machines had already been pressed into service, he added.

Source: Times of India, Business Standard

How credible is BJD's claim about development of Gopalpur (Berhampur)?

Berhampur's traffic problem goes from bad to worse

Source: The Sambad

Berhampuri Silk deprived of state support

Source: The Sambad

The rise of Berhampur

Construction of multi-storied residential apartments has gained pace in cities such as Berhampur, Sambalpur, Balasore and Jharsuguda, which boasted only of standalone houses built by individual owners till recently. Contrary to real estate development centered around the Cuttack-Puri-Bhubaneswar triangle alone earlier, several residential projects are coming up in Berhampur, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur and Balasore, among other towns. Apart from individual merits of certain towns because of industrial activities around them and their strategic locations, apartment culture is picking up across Odisha towns, industry insiders said.

Around 50 apartments with a total of 10,000 dwelling units are under different stages of construction in Berhampur alone. "People prefer apartments and planned constructions to buying land these days. Salaried employees have disposable money but don't have time to construct a house by employing a contractor on their own. They are the large clientele here," said P K Rajeev, a developer in the south Odisha town.

Berhampur with its good road and rail connectivity is a gateway to south Odisha, making it a preferred destination for people from neighbouring districts to invest and own a house here. The real estate price here is now as high as Rs 2,000 to Rs 4,000 per sq ft, only a little less than the price in Bhubaneswar.

Jharsuguda, an emerging industrial town, where the government is planning the state's second airport, is coming up as another real estate hub. "Besides apartments, simplex and duplex houses, there are huge takers for plot schemes here," said Sajid Hussain, a developer there. Sambalpur is witnessing similar vertical and horizontal expansion with multiple developers undertaking huge projects.

Developers said with land price skyrocketing in Bhubaneswar, housing cost in the city is exceptionally high. "This is ruling out a substantial section of low middle class families from buying a house in Bhubaneswar. These people can easily afford houses in the regional and district towns. Many others who have money tend to own houses both in the state capital and in their native towns," said Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India state president D S Tripathy. 

Source: Times of India

Mayfair-Gopalpur; a new addition to Brand Berhampur

Source: mayfairhotels.com

JSPL keen on captive port in Bahuda-Muhan in Ganjam; to have stake in Gopalpur port

Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) has ruled out the possibility of acquiring controlling stake in Gopalpur Ports Ltd (GPL), a special purpose vehicle (SPV), developing the seasonal port at the beach town near Berhampur city in south Odisha into an all-weather port. JSPL had evinced interest in acquiring stake after the Hong-Kong based Noble Group exited the SPV. Initially, GPL was floated as a consortium of three partners with the other two companies being Odisha Stevedores Ltd (OSL) and Delhi-based Sara International Ltd (SIL). The port's total capacity was envisaged at 54 million tonne per annum (mtpa) and it was to be developed at a cost of Rs 3,500 crore. "We are not keen on a controlling stake in GPL as the majority equity will be held by the two existing partners- OSL and SIL. Also, JSPL has not decided the percentage of stake it will have in GPL”, said a top JSPL official.

GPL has already claimed to have achieved financial closure of Rs 1,400 crore for the first stage of Phase-II of the deep sea port, with the signing of loan agreement with a consortium of 11 banks. Meanwhile, JSPL said it is committed to develop its captive port proposed at Bahuda Muhan in Ganjam district, located within 50 km radius of the Gopalpur port. “We have already given a presentation to the state government regarding our plan to establish a captive port at Bahuda Muhan. After we pick up stake in GPL, we will have the first right of refusal for developing a port at Bahuda Muhan as the site is within 50 km radius of the Gopalpur port”, said the JSPL official. The port involves a capital cost of Rs 1424.4 crore while the operational cost of running the port would be to the tune of Rs 152 crore per annum.

Source: Business Standard

Arvind Padhee takes over as RDC Southern Division

Arvind Padhee took over as the Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC), southern division, in the city on Thursday. After taking charge Mr. Padhee issued an order to all district administrations in south Odisha banning use of gutka, smoking and chewing of pan on office premises.

Source: The Hindu & Tathya.in

World Tourism Day celebrated in Berhampur

Source: My Berhampur.Com

A rally was taken out in Berhampur city to mark the World Tourism Day. It was flagged off by Berhampur Sub-Collector Ajit Mishra from Berhampur stadium. The rally included a ‘paryatan rath’ depicting cultural heritage and tourist places of Ganjam district. Folk dance troupes of Ganjam district like ‘jodi sankha’, ‘ranapa’, ‘bagha nacha’ participated in the rally along with people of all walks of life. A seminar on improvement of communication network for development of tourism industry in Ganjam district was also held at conference hall of RDC, southern division. Berhampur MLA R.C.C. Patnaik and Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Panigrahy attended the seminar as guests.

Source: The Hindu

Chatrapur and Hinjili to become Municipalities

Tasty Tasty foods of Berhampur (OTV)

Click here to watch the You Tube Video on Berhampuri food- Part I

Click here to watch the You Tube Video on Berhampuri food- Part II