IMG meet skips Posco

The inter-ministerial group (IMG), constituted to oversee the progress of mega steel projects in the country, on Monday skipped discussion on the much talked about Posco project as none of the representatives of the company turned up for a review meeting at Delhi.

"There was no discussion on Posco as no representative of the company was present in the meeting," said S K Popli, special secretary with the state steel and mines department.

Speculations were rife that the high powered committee would certainly discuss Posco issue as the land acquisition process for the beleaguered project had recently gained momentum in Odisha.

According to sources, the Union steel ministry wants the Ministry of environment & forests (MoEF) to revalidate environment clearance for the $12 billion Posco project immediately to avoid unnecessary hue and cry raised by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and anti-project entities during land acquisition.

Though the expert appraisal committee (EAC) of MoEF had recommended revalidation of green clearance for the Posco plant in its original form on June 14 last year, the matter is still pending with the ministry.

Posco had earlier announced that it would require 4,004 acre land for its 12 million tonne per annum (MTPA) integrated steel plant, but later scaled down its requirement to 2,700 acre for start of first phase work envisaging 8 million tonne per annum capacity. The state government, which has already acquired about 2,400 acre land, has so far handed over 1,700 acres area to Posco.

The IMG also discussed other big ticket investment plans such as those of ArcelorMittal's 12 MTPA greenfield project at Patana in Keonjhar district. The company was told to achieve certain milestones ahead of the renewal of its Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the state government.

The MoU signed with the steel behemoth has lapsed since December 2011 and is pending for renewal. ArcelorMittal had also filed seven PL (prospecting license) applications and one ML (mining lease) applications with the state directorate of mines which is pending for disposal.

The other projects which came up for discussion in the meet on Monday included Tata Steel's mining renewal issue and long term ore linkage issue of Bhushan Steel.