Despite inordinate delay in grounding its 12 million tonne steel plant in Odisha due to hurdles over land acquisition and getting captive mining lease, South Korean steel maker, Posco is no mood to quit the project.
"We would not quit. No, never. We have been waiting (for the project) for 10 years", said Gee Woong Sung, chairman and managing director (CMD), Posco India after emerging out of a meeting with state chief secretary G C Pati, here, today.
"The discussion was successful", he said, refusing to disclose the details.
Sung also met state industries secretary cum CMD of Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco), Vishal Dev.
Though the and acquisition for the first phase of the project, comprising 8 million tonne, has been completed, the project has been stuck over grant of mining rights to Posco over Khandadhar iron ore deposits in Sundergarh district.
After protracted legal battle, the Supreme Court had upheld the decision of the state government recommending grant of prospecting licence (PL) to Posco and asked the Centre to dispose off the matter suitably.
However, the Centre has held up the matter, seeking some clarifications from the state government over its PL recommendation in favour of Posco.
The state government is now ready to furnish its compliance report to the Centre.
"There is no issue with the mining lease and it should not be seen as a hurdle to the Posco project. We had already recommended the Khandadhar mining lease in favour of Posco India. The mine comprised of both notified and non-notified area. The Centre has asked us to submit two separate proposals, one for the notified area and other for the non-notified area. We are working on it and will send our compliance soon", said a top state official.
In March this year, the state government had recommended grant of PL over 2500 hectare (ha) area in Khandadhar mines in favour of Posco. Of the total area recommended, 650 ha belonged to non-notified areas, or the area which was not recognised by the state government as mineral bearing site.
Uncertainty in securing a mining lease and row over land acquisition has caused inordinate delay in implementation of the project, for which the South Korean steel firm had signed MoU with the state government in June, 2005. The project cost was originally estimated at Rs 52,000 crore, cited as the largest single project FDI in the country.
Notwithstanding the delay, Posco India today said it had no plans to pull out of the Odisha project unlike its bigger revival ArcelorMittal. In July last year, the world's biggest steel player, ArcelorMittal announced withdrawal from its proposed 12 million tonne steel mill in Odisha, citing resistance to land acquisition, delay in allocation of iron ore mines and law & order issues.
It may be noted, the state-owned land acquisition agency, Idco has acquired 2,772.05 acres of land to facilitate establishment of an eight million tonne per annum (mtpa) steel mill by Posco India in the first phase.
This includes 2,193.52 acres de-reserved forest land and 578.53 acres government land. Out of this, 1703.56 acres have been handed over to the company. At today's meeting with the state chief secretary, Posco India CMD, Sung is learnt to have discussed about transfer of additional land to the company.
Idco is sore over non-deposit of Rs 54.22 crore by Posco India as government land cost. This has held up sanction of lease of additional 1,048.52 acres for the project. The 12 million tonne steel project initially needed 4,004 acres.
