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The construction work was followed by stone laying ceremony on December 6.
“We have started the work officially on December 6 with the ceremony. Construction work began after a gap of 2-3 days as there was delay in arranging labourers,” said Ho Chan Ryu, deputy managing director of Posco-India.
The construction wall is being constructed on 2700 acre land demanded by the steel maker. However, as of now, land acquisition agency of the Odisha government, Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Odisha (Idco), has handed over 1708 acre land to it.
“The rest land will be provided to Posco once Jagatsinghpur district administration hands over the land deeds to us. They (Posco) can construct the boundary wall in the area provided to them,” said Sangramjit Mohapatra, land officer with Idco.
Though the Korean steel giant does not possess environment clearance allowing it to start construction activities, government officials said there is no restriction on boundary wall construction.
“The restriction is on start of industrial construction. The boundary wall construction can go on,” said Ramkrishan Sahu, additional district magistrate (ADM) of Paradip.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) , while hearing an environment rule violation case against Posco regarding tree cutting in the area in March 2012, had directed the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) to review afresh the clearance for the project and attach "specific conditions" which Posco would have to follow in a “defined timeline”.
Meanwhile, the company has submitted fresh application for updation of original Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearance, which had expired in 2012.
The CRZ clearance for the port, which lapsed in 2012, is required for the start of industrial construction of the project. Once approved, the clearance will help the company in getting Environmental Clearance (EC), which had also expired last year.
In October this year, the steelmaker chose to file a fresh application seeking CRZ approval of the discharge pipeline of the proposed plant after the expert committees appointed by the MoEF in 2010 had objected to the grant of EC by the ministry without this clearance.
Posco is keen to initiate some construction work at the site ahead of the Korean President’s visit in January.
“We wanted it to start early, but there was delay in land demarcation, which is why the construction (of boundary wall) got delayed. The embassy has confirmed about the President’s visit in January, but we have no information on which date the visit will take place,” said Ryu.
The company has said, it will start work with 2,700 acre land for the first phase of the steel plant having eight million tonne capacity. It will expand the capacity to 12 mtpa as and when it received the rest of the required 4,004 acres land.
The wall construction activity has not been met with protests by locals, who had opposed the land acquisition for more than half a decade starting 2005, when India’s biggest foreign direct investment (FDI) was announced.
“The boundary wall construction is going on peacefully. So far, we have not received any information regarding violence in the area,” said Sahu, the ADM.
