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Ambarish Mukherjee

Eco clearance awaited; co to forego 200 acres pvt land

New Delhi May 12 South Korean steel giant Posco is hopeful that it would be able to start preliminary construction work for its proposed 12-million-tonne steel plant in Orissa from around September in spite of stiff opposition from local population against acquisition of private land.

"We would begin work initially on Government land. Out of the total Government owned land of 3,566 acres earmarked for the project, around 1,356 acres have been sanctioned and paid for. The only pending issue is the final clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) at the Centre," senior company official, Mr Vikas Saran, told Business Line.

Meanwhile, the company has made a formal announcement that it has "decided to forego 200 acres of the 438 acres private land since that stretch is most disturbing."

Villagers in that area had been putting up stiff resistance against Posco and on Friday, three company officials were taken on hostage while a company's mobile medical van was passing through that area.

They were release later at night following the State Government's intervention.

Mr Saran said forgoing this land would not affect the company's plans.

"We would be setting up the plant is three phases of 4 million tonnes each. First phase is scheduled to be completed in 2010, second in 2013 and the last in 2016. So Government land is adequate till up to the second phase," he said.

However, construction work for the first phase scheduled to begin in April this year got delayed because of several reasons and now the company is on its way to clear the last hurdle.

"There was some ambiguity within Orissa Government on the exact area of land under forest coverage. Initially they said only 843 acres was forestland but after review it was found that around 2,700 acres fall under forest coverage," he said. The Posco official said the Orissa Government was likely to send the proposal for forest diversion clearance of this land to the MoEF at the Centre within the next 7 to 10 days.

"After that, hopefully the Centre might take another 30 to 45 days to clear it," he said, adding that if plans work out as per expectations the company could possibly begin the actual ground work by September. The company's proposed 12-mt steel plant in Orissa envisages a foreign direct investment of Rs 52,000 crore. The plan also includes setting up of a minor port.

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