The South Korean steel major Posco, proposing to set up a 12 million tonne integrated steel plant near Paradeep in Orissa, today said, it will separate the captive mining from the steel project to expedite work on the mega steel plant.
It hoped to start ground leveling work for the project early next year. It, however, ruled out the possibility of leaving out Dhinkia, the epicenter of anti-Posco agitation in the project area, from the original site plan. It was speculated that the company may drop this village from the site map to circumvent opposition to its project in the area. “We will separate the mining project from the steel plant and the construction of the steel plant will be taken up first”, Dong-He-Lee, chairman, Posco India told the media persons here. Lee, who met the Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik in the state secretariat this evening, described the meeting as very constructive. There were some rumours to change Orissa project site but the company will go by its original plan.
He said, almost all the problems pertaining to the project has been resolved and the construction work will start soon. “ By the end of 2009 all the legal matters will be solved and early next year, the construction work like leveling of land will start”, he added. Sources said, the meeting lasted for more than 45 minutes and the state government assured to support the project. However, Patnaik insisted that the company should start the project in time and give close attention to the issues relating to the rehabilitation and resettlement of the affected people.
Since the grant of prospecting license (PL) and subsequently mining lease (ML) will be delayed due to the litigations involved in the matter, the company sought raw material linkage for the project. In this context, the government agreed to provide raw material linkage through Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC), as it has been providing to some MoU signed companies, to Posco as an interim measure.
Since the memorandum of understanding (MoU) states that the raw material linkage can be provided when the lease is under litigation, there will not be any problem in providing them raw material linkage, sources said. However, the chief minister is reported to have asked the company to focus on starting the construction works. During the discussion, the company officials stated that they hope to get the stage-II clearance for diversion of forest land within the site in the beginning of 2010.
It may be noted, the Rs 51,000 crore project, billed as the largest foreign direct investment proposal of the country, could not make substantial headway due to the resistance of the local people to the land acquisition.