Naveen assures S Korean prez of speeding up Posco work

Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today assured South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak of expediting the work relating to the Rs 54,000-crore Posco steel plant, which has been inordinately delayed because of procedural problems.

Patnaik rushed to Delhi earlier in the day to meet Lee, who has been concerned over the delay in the implementation of the project envisaging the biggest single dose of FDI in India.

“I have assured the South Korean President that Posco project work will be expedited,” Patnaik told reporters here after meeting Lee at the At-Home hosted by President Pratibha Patil at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in honour of the visiting dignitary.

Patnaik said he told Lee that the state government would speed up land acquisition for the project, which has failed to take off in the face of stiff resistance by locals to the project contending that it would uproot them.

The environmental clearance for the project was accorded in December last year.

Lee, who was the chief guest at this year’s Republic Day celebrations, had discussed the Posco issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here last evening.

Before coming to India, the President had expressed his interest to visit Posco-India’s proposed plant site near Paradip and participate in the “ribbon cutting” function. However, he could not come to the area, as the situation was not conducive for his visit.

In his 30-minute meeting, Patnaik assured Lee of setting up the project near Paradip.

The visiting President wanted to know from the chief minister what the people opposing the project wanted from the company, sources said.

They said the President was apprised that a handful of people, mostly outsiders and backed by a particular political party, was against the project.

While expressing concern over the delay on implementation of the project, Posco’s chief Joon Yang-Chung had met the union steel minister Virbhadra Singh yesterday.

After the meeting, the minister had said, “Efforts are to see that the entire matter is seen, signed and delivered in the next 4-5 months. This includes physical transfer of land and all regulatory clearances to Posco.”

Meanwhile, sources said the union steel secretary was scheduled to review the progress of various steel projects, including Posco and ArcelorMittal in Orissa tomorrow.

The MoU between the company and the state government was signed four years ago but the project could not take off because of land acquisition problems.

The MoU was signed on June 22, 2005, for setting up a 12 MTPA greenfield steel plant.