Mega projects in Odisha not to be hit by new Land Act

These projects have suffered delays due to proctracted agitations over land issue

The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill-2012, passed in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, has a lot of bearing on Odisha which faces an uphill task in procuring land for various mega projects in the state.

The projects, which have suffered delays due to protracted agitations over the land issue, include Posco’s 12 million tonne steel plant at Paradip, Tata Steel’s 6 million tonne steel plant at Kalinganagar, Essar’s six million tonne state plant at Paradip, Jindal Steel and Power’s (JSPL) six million tonne steel project near Angul.

However, sources said, the new central law will not have much of an impact on the implementation of these projects as all of them, except Posco, have started work on their respective projects after settling land alienation and compensation issues.

Even in case of Posco, the new act may not be an impediment for the time being, as the company has scaled down its land requirement to only 2,700 acres of government land to start first phase project work comprising 8 million tonne steel capacity. With the proposed law being applicable for acquisition of private land, the company sees no immediate threat to its plan.

But ArclorMittal, which also proposed to build a 12 million tonne steel plant in the state, was not as lucky. A sizeable chunk of the 6,000 acres sought by the company for the project, was private land and the company recently pulled out of Odisha citing inordinate delay in land acquisition.

Though a senior official of Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco), the land procurement agency of the state government, asserts that most of the mega projects in the state may not be affected by the central law, he said, all land acquisition activity in the state may now come to a standstill waiting clarity on the new act and framing of rules on it, which may take about a year.

Besides, land acquisition for all new projects coming to the state may be a herculean task because of the pre-requisite clause of getting the consent of 80 percent project affected people in the identified area. “What will be basis of enumeration?,” the official asked. “With the voters’ list itself being faulty, it will be very difficult to identify the participants in such referendums,” he pointed out.