Finally,fortune smiles on Posco

After years of agonising wait,Korean steel giant Posco seems to have cleared the final roadblock for its mega 12 million tonne steel plant...

After years of agonising wait,Korean steel giant Posco seems to have cleared the final roadblock for its mega 12 million tonne steel plant in Orissas Jagatsinghpur district entailing a massive investment of nearly Rs 52,000 crore with the Naveen Pattnaik government recommending its name for the prospecting licence for the Khandadhar mines in the coastal states Sundergarh district.

8221;We have recommended the name of Posco to the union ministry of mines for grant of prospective licence in the Khandadhar mines of Sundargarh district. The company had applied for license over 6,800 acres. But we have recommended a prospecting license for 2,500 acres, state steel and mines secretary A M R Dalwai said.

Once the company secures the PL from the Centre and completes its prospecting,it would apply for a final mining lease for extracting 600 million tonne of iron ore over the next 30 years. Welcoming the news,steel secretary Pramod Kumar Rastogi said, This is definitely a welcome move. The Korean giant is trying to bring in an entirely new technology in steel making into the country by emulating the one they have in Pohang South Korea. This is the right time for the company to begin construction because by the time they are through,steel demand would again be picking up and they would only stand to gain. Now,the mines ministry will have to endorse the recommendation made by the state.

Though the company was given a go-ahead by the Supreme Court in August last year to divert a huge amount of forest land for the project,the companys top officials stressed that work would not start till the companys name was recommended for prospecting licence by the government.

The project has been mired in controversy from the day Posco inked the MoU with the Orissa government for setting up the 12-million-tonne-per-annum steel plant in Jagatsinghpur in 2005. It faced a barrage of protests from people in Dhinkia,Nuagan and Gadakujanga gram panchayats in Jagatsinghpur over its land-acquisition efforts.

In October 2008,the state Government won a small victory over anti-Posco agitators when it arrested Communist leader Abhay Sahu,who had been spearheading the movement against the steel project. Sahu,a CPI leader of Jagatsinghpur district,was arrested on charges of arson,rioting and abduction of foreign nationals.