The government of the eastern Indian state of Odisha will keep the 1,880 acres of land taken back from POSCO India, the Indian subsidiary of South Korean steelmaker POSCO, for any alternative investor proposing to set up a greenfield steel mill, a government official said on Wednesday, May 3.
The government official said that last week the Odisha government informed POSCO India that the land allotment made to the steel company had been cancelled as no progress had been made on the construction of a steel mill, first mooted in 2005.
The official said that the land, close to Paradip port in Odisha state, would not be left idle but the government has already commenced preliminary talks with several investors and steel companies to start afresh plans for a new steel mill to replace the POSCO project. He confirmed reports that talks have been held between government officials and Indian steelmaker JSW Limited on the latter’s tentative plans to invest an estimated $8 billion to set up a steel mill at Paradip.
However, the official also added that the land earlier allotted to POSCO will now be added to the “land bank” of the government for industrial projects and that JSW is one among several prospective investors.
Significantly, earlier this week, an organization of indigenous people of Paradip which had spearheaded opposition to the POSCO steel plant and to the government’s land acquisition for the project, demanded that the 1,880 acres of land should be handed back to the farmers from whom it was acquired.
The organization of local people has threatened fresh agitation if the land is handed over for the construction of an alternative steel project.