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No plans to shelve Odisha project: Posco-India CMD

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Posco-India on Friday said it has no plans to withdraw from the proposed mega steel plant project worth Rs 52,000 crore near Paradip in Odisha, which has seen a little progress during a span of over nine years. "No... Never.. there is no such plan," Posco-India chairman-cum-managing director Gee Woong Sung told reporters here after meeting Chief Secretary G C Pati.

Even as Posco-India and the state government termed the meeting as a "courtesy call" between the new Chief Secretary and the new CMD, the talks between Sung and Pati was held in the backdrop of the Centre recently seeking more clarifications from the state government on the Khandadhar iron mines in Sundargarh district. "The meeting with the Chief Secretary was positive and meaningful," Sung said before holding talks with the industries secretary. Asked whether the South Korean steel major had any plans to shelve the project in Odisha in view of little progress during a span of over nine years, Sung clarified they have been waiting for implementation of the Rs 52,000 crore project.

During the meeting, sources said, Sung and Pati discussed the ways to expedite work on the project. While the state government has already handed over 1,700 acres of land to the company, Posco-India required another 1,000 acres to start construction for the project near Paradip.

However, Posco-India was yet to deposit Rs 54.21 crore towards the cost of the land. The issue was raised by the state government when Sung met industries secretary-cum-CMD of the Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) V K Dev. The state government, sources said, has also assured Posco-India that it would soon submit separate recommendations for notified and non-notified areas of Khandadhar iron ore reserve.

Earlier, the state government's recommendation for Khandadhar iron ore reserve was returned by the Centre which asked Odisha to submit two separate recommendations for the purpose. POSCO had signed an MoU with the state government on June 22, 2005 for a USD 12 billion steel plant and port project, touted the biggest foreign direct investment (FDI) in India. The company has, however, scaled down its capacity to eight MTPA from the original 12 MTPA, due to opposition in land acquisition and delay in getting permission to mine iron ore.

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