Paving the way for the biggest foreign direct investment in the country, six years after it was mooted, environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday cleared Posco’s $12 billion integrated steel project of in Orissa.
“Final approval is accorded to the state government for diversion of 1,253 hectares of forest land in favour of Posco,” the ministry said in a note on its website.
The approval would be subject to the condition that in addition to the conditions already imposed on compensatory afforestation and payment of net present value of the forest land, etc, Posco would bear the cost of regeneration of an equivalent amount of open, degraded forest land in a district to be determined and indicated by the state government.
The South Korean company, the world’s third-biggest steel producer, had signed a memorandum of understanding with Orissa government in June 2005 for setting up a 12 million tonne per annum (mtpa) integrated steel plant in Jagatsinghpur district with an investment of Rs52,810 crore. The investment would accompany development of a 600 million tonne iron ore mine in Sundergarh district, a captive port and related infrastructure.
All this would require acquisition of 4,004 acres of land —- 3,566 acres government land and 438 acres private —- of which close to 3,096 acres, or 1,253 hectares, is forest land.
Posco had also sought an additional 2,000 acres of land for township and social infrastructure and an additional 400 million tonne of iron ore reserves to be exported to feed its plants in South Korea. This MoU expired last year and now Posco has to sign a new MoU to take the work forward.
The ministry note has cautioned the state against allow any export of ore. “I would now hope that the new MoU would be negotiated by the state government in such a way that exports of iron ore are completely avoided,” Ramesh said in the note.
Though the long-awaited green nod for the mega project has been secured, the fate of the 600 million tonne captive iron ore mine awarded by the state government for the project is still not clear as it is currently embroiled in a legal wrangle with a third party —- Geomin Minerals and Marketing Pvt Ltd —- and is being contested in the Supreme Court.
