Posco to start work after possession of forest land

Bhubaneswar: South Korean steel major Posco, which recently received stage-I forest clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) for diversion of forest land for setting up of its 12 million tonne steel plant near Paradip, will start construction of the project after getting possession of the forest land.

This was made clear by the chairman and the managing director, Posco India, Soung Sik Cho after a meeting with the chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

“Basically the major portion of land required for the plant is forest land and we can decide on the date of starting the construction work after getting the forest land”, Cho told newsmen.

Billed as the biggest foreign direct investment (FDI) project in the country, the Rs 52,000-crore project requires 4,004 acres of land in three panchayats, Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Gada Kujanga in Jagatsinghpur district. Out of this, forest land is 2,958.79 acres, for which the state government had sent the forest diversion proposal (FDP) for approval of the MoEF and latter has recently granted the stage-1 clearance.

Cho’s statement assumes importance as G W Sung, director, Posco India, had earlier stated in the first week of November that the company intended to start the construction work on the 414.19 acres of the non-forest government land in the first stage.

Out of the 414.19 acres, 313.19 acres have already been sanctioned to Posco by the collector of Jagatsinghpur in October 2007 and the same is now pending for transfer to the company for clarification on premium amount by the revenue and disaster management department of the state government.

After meeting the chief minister in the state secretariat Cho said, he discussed the issue of recommendation of the prospecting license (PL) for Khandadhar mines in favour of Posco and hoped that the state government will take appropriate steps in this regard soon.

“We discussed the issue of PL for Khandadhar mines and hope the Orissa government will send its recommendations to the Centre soon”, Cho added. The issue of land acquisition and the procedures for possession of forest land also figured in the discussion.

About the possible dates for convening of the meeting of the Rehabilitation and Periphery Development Advisory Committee (RPDAC), Cho was non-committal stating that it is expected to be held soon. However, he explicitly stated that the global financial meltdown will not have any significant impact on the company’s Orissa project.

Sources said, though the company obtained the stage-I forest clearance from the MoEF, it will have to fulfill certain conditions in terms of mitigation measures for obtaining the next stage of approval.