Posco reaffirms Orissa project commitment

The South Korean steel giant Posco has reaffirmed its commitment to Orissa project amid speculation about the company shifting it out of the state.

"All the speculations about the company shifting the project out of Orissa are done by the newspapers. On our part, we are still committed to setting up the project in Orissa," said Chang Oh Kang, president, Posco.

Posco has proposed to set up mega 10 million tonne per annum steel project in Orissa in association with BHP Billiton of Australia.

The project envisaged investment of $8 billion (Rs 40,000 crore), signifying the biggest foreign investment in a single project in the country.

However, recently there were reports in a section of media, which quoted Posco official that the company was unhappy with the infrastructural facilities and delay in decision making process in Orissa and intended to shift the project out of the state and instead set up the proposed steel venture in Brazil.

Setting at rest all speculations in this regard, Kang said, Brazil venture is not a replacement of Orissa project, but a completely separate investment proposal.

On the contrary, Kang expressed satisfaction over the response of the Orissa government to the company's investment plan in the state and said talks with the state government officials were progressing on a satisfactory and fruitful note.

Kang on Saturday visited possible locations of its proposed plant at Dhamra and Duburi and also had look at the port facilities at Paradip and flew over the iron ore mining zone of Daitary.

Dhamra is an appropriate location and there is enough land there to put up the plant. "We will first go for a comprehensive geological test to ascertain if the soil and conditions are okay for setting up the plant there," Kang said. If the test comes out negative, we will then see Duburi which is a equally good sight, he added.

Meanwhile, the firm has started Mecon to do a technical study of location at Dhamra. Coinciding with Kang's visit, group president of BHP Billiton RW Kirkby has come on a tour to Orissa and met the chief secretary Subas Pani and other senior officials to discuss port, railway and mining aspect of the project.