Odisha to hand over 1,554 acres of land to Posco

Govt expects company would expedite its CSR activities in the area

The Odisha government is all set to hand over 1,554 acres of land to Posco-India for setting up its proposed mega steel project in Jagatsinghpur district, official sources said today.

"The state government has already handed over 546 acre of land to Posco and rest 1,554 acres is ready to be handed over to the company," official sources said quoting recent status report on Posco-India project.

The government expects that with the handing over of the land, the company would expedite its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities at the proposed plant site villages, sources said.

The state government maintains that the South Korean steel major required 2,700 acre of land for its 8 mtpa capacity steel facility near Paradip on stage-1. Of the immediate requirement of 2,700 acre of land, the state owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) has already acquired 2100 acre of land, it said.

"Balance 600 acre of land is expected to be acquired within the next four months. After that, IDCO will be in a position to hand over this land to Posco," it said adding that the company required a total of 4,004 acre of land for setting up its proposed 12 mtpa greenfield steel project at an investment of Rs 52,000 crore.

The required land (4,004 acre) would be acquired from eight villages like Nuagaon, Dhinkia, Noliasahi, Gobindpur, Polang, Bayanalakanda, Bhuyanpal and Jatadhar, sources said.

This apart, the state owned Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation Limited (IPICOL) has also recommended 1,500 acre of land for township at Paradip and 20 acre of land for Posco-India's corporate headquarter at Bhubaneswar, they said.

The state government has also accorded administrative approval for 437.69 acre of private land for the project site and 52.30 acre for township, they said.