By June 30, South Korea's largest steelmaker POSCO will renew its memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of the eastern Indian state of Orissa to build a 3 million mt per year capacity steel plant. The MoU for the project was inked with the Orissa government on June 22, 2005, but no headway has been made since then. According to the original MoU conditions, during the first phase between 2007 and 2010 POSCO would build the plant and would then expand to a final production volume of 12 million mt per year. POSCO and the Orissa government had temporarily suspended action on the project as agitation against the steel plant gained momentum.
Meanwhile, Orissa steel and mines minister Raghunath Mohanty said the state government was yet to decide on the issue and that his department is examining whether to cancel the MoU. Prior to renewing the MoU, the government has taken the views of departments like water resources, forest and environment, energy, transport and commerce.
On the other hand, the minister said that about 2,000 acres of land have already been acquired for the project and acquisition of the remaining 2,000 acres would be done peacefully through mutual understanding. "We expect it to be renewed by the end of June, with retrospective effect from last year," he stated. The 2005 MoU had lapsed on June 21 last year.