Posco project fate may be decided at FM-level meet

Meeting will decide the future of the $12 billion project, the country's biggest FDI

After the tripartite meeting on Posco project held on Tuesday turned inconclusive, the state government has set its eyes on the next big meet planned on the project in the first week of September.

The forthcoming meet likely to be chaired by finance minister Arun Jaitley, is tipped to be decisive for the future of the $12-billion project, the country's biggest foreign direct investment. “No firm decision could be taken on the Posco project at Tuesday's meeting. The next round of meeting is scheduled to be held soon to discuss the future of the project. This meeting is likely to be chaired by the Union finance minister in the presence of chief minister Naveen Patnaik,” said state steel and mines minister Prafulla Mallick.

Biju Janata Dal's (BJD) Lok Sabha leader Bhartruhari Mahtab had said recently that the meeting on Posco at the level of the finance minister is going to be held in the first week of September.

The finance minister agreed to convene the meeting after a delegation of BJD MPs met him earlier this month. The tripartite meeting held on last Tuesday was chaired by Nripendra Mishra, principal secretary to the prime minister.  Union mines secretary Balwinder Kumar, Union steel secretary Rakesh Singh, Odisha chief secretary G C Pati and the state's steel and mines secretary R K Sharma were present at the meeting. At the meeting, the Odisha government is believed to have suggested to Posco to procure iron ore from state owned Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) through long-term linkage.

The state government has visibly gone on the damage control mode after Posco's announcement that the proposed 12 million tonne steel project would be frozen temporarily. The steel major's decision had fuelled concerns on its possible exit.  Last month, Posco said it was going for shutdown of unprofitable local and overseas businesses as part of its restructuring plan since global demand for steel remained subdued. Wary at losing a steel project of Posco's scale, the state government had recently written to the Centre to arrange a meeting either at the level of the Prime minister or cabinet secretary.

Inordinate delay in land acquisition and the row over iron ore deposits also pushed the Posco project to the back foot since it signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state government in June 2005.

Posco's hopes of bagging the prized Khandadhar iron ore deposits to feed its proposed steel project were dashed with the enactment of the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) MMDR Act, 2015.