With the Ministry of Forest and Environment’s (MoEF) clearance for Korean steel major Posco’s project in Odisha, work on the site is set to begin soon, a senior official in the Ministry of External Affairs said here on Monday.
Briefing the media on the four-day state visit of the Korean President to India, which begins on January 15, the official said, “We believe that with this (MoEF clearance) and the fact that land for the project has already been acquired, Posco India can move forward in the next few weeks or months.”
The plant has been mired in controversy for over eight years now with environmental issues coming in the way of the project, tipped as the single largest foreign direct investment in India.
The current Posco proposal is to have an integrated steel project with an annual capacity of 8 million tonnes a year for which 2,700 acres is required and has already been acquired by the state government, the official pointed out.
During her visit, the Korean President Park Geun-hye will hold delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, after which some agreements are likely to be signed, officials said.
Trade between India and South Korea, which had grown following the signing of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in 2009, dipped in 2012 at $18 billion. With India facing a trade deficit with South Korea, the issue of greater market access for Indian goods is likely to be taken up during talks between the two delegations.
ashwini.phadnis@thehindu.co.in