Posco-India has replaced its deputy managing director Ho Chan Ryu, who was in charge of the company's Odisha steel plant project. Though no official communication has been made in this regard by the company, sources said Ryu has been shunted to make way for a new project in charge.
The change of guard follows meeting of Kwon Oh-Joon, chief executive officer of Posco-India with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 19 this year. In the meeting, Oh-Joon had discussed about concerns related to grant of an iron ore mining lease in the wake of newly introduced mining ordinance.
Ryu was involved in Posco's Odisha project in different stints since its inception. He was instrumental in signing of Posco's MoU with the Odisha government in 2005 and was also there to initiate the process of obtaining various approvals for the project. He, however, was shifted out of India in 2008 to work in company's various overseas projects in South East Asia countries and elsewhere before returning to head the Odsha project team in 2011.
Apart from being the company's representative in Odisha, he was also dealing with Union government officials in New Delhi. During his tenure the company had filed application for various clearances for the upcoming steel plant. He also acted as an intermediary between the company management in South Korea and district administration for payment of land compensation. The company has been handed over almost all the area required for a 8 million tonne per annum plant. It has been awaiting for a mines lease grant to go ahead with plant constructions.
