JSPL project hit by land delays

Equipment worth of hundreds of crores of rupees procured by Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) for its proposed six million tonnes steel plant in Orissa is lying idle in Mumbai and Europe over the last several months due to the delay in land acquisition.

The company, which signed the MoU for the Rs 13,115-crore integrated steel plant with the Orissa government two years ago, has still a long way to go before completing the acquisition work.

"We were scheduled to begin construction in April 2007 as per the MoU, but missed the deadline due to the delay in land acquisition," said D K Saraogi, the president of the JSPL Angul project.

The company had ordered equipment from abroad for the main plant worth hundreds of crores of rupees, which was delivered on time.

These are now lying in Mumbai port, since last April, and Europe due to delays in construction work. Though work was rescheduled to begin last month, it was put off again due to the sluggish pace of acquisition of both private and government land, sources said.

The main reason is the non-disbursement of compensation to those affected in ten out of the 14 villages.

While the company had deposited Rs 106 crore with the state authorities under this head last year, the payment has been slow due to the shortage of manpower for the land acquisition work. The district officials, however, attributed the delay to the absence of land records in these areas dating back to 1962.

Establishing legal heirs or awardees without records was an onerous task, said a district official. Further, extreme care was being taken to see that no genuine land right holder was left out from the settlement process, he added.

The JSPL authorities, meanwhile, have demanded the deployment of adequate manpower under the special land acquisition officer to expedite the settlement of compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement of land losers. The government is yet to act upon the request.