It’s official now: Posco has fully backed out from Odisha project
By Ratikant Mohanty
BHUBANESWAR, MARCH 18: It’s official now. South Korean steel major Pohang Steel Company (Posco) has finally say ‘no’ to the country’s largest foreign direct investment project – the 12-million-tonne integrated steel project – that was supposed to come up at Paradip in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district.
Odisha industry minister Debi Prasad Mishra on Saturday told the Assembly that the steel major has asked the state government to take back the 2,700 acre land acquired for setting up of the Rs 52,000-crore FDI project citing its failure to start work for the project.
Minister Mr Mishra said, – since 2,700 acres of land were acquired by state government run Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) on behalf of the Industries department from 2008-10 for the proposed project, a letter was sent earlier to the company’s head office in South Korea asking it to clear Rs 82 crore dues towards cess.
“In its reply, Posco has said the company is not interested to take possession of the acquired land and pay the remaining amount. Therefore, the company requested the Odisha government in the letter to take back the acquired land,” the minister said.
The minister further informed that in the letter, Posco has cited its failure to start work on the proposed 12-mt steel plant project in Paradip, as required by the lease agreement conditions, to be the reason for the request made to the Odisha government to take back the acquired land.”
The minister mentioned that chief minister Naveen Patnaik had approved a proposal made by the Industries department to keep the 2,700-acre land acquired for the Posco project under the IDCO land bank.
It needs to be mentioned here that Posco had in June 2005 signed memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for setting up the project. However, the land acquisition process was delayed due to resistance of the local people.
As many as two people were killed during the protest against the project while many others were injured.
