The largest-ever foreign investment proposed in India currently lies in no man's land, hobbled by environmental concerns and the inevitable disagreements over the acquisition of land for the enterprise.
The Commerce Ministry earlier this week commissioned a study to assess the impact of free trade agreement with South Korea, with which India had a trade deficit of about $9 billion in 2012-13.
Billed as India's biggest foreign direct investment, the Posco project has been delayed by more than five years.
South Korean steel company Posco has started an Indian subsidiary, Posco India, which will be based in Bhubaneswar, Orissa.
The issue on Monday figured in a bilateral meeting held in Agra between Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and visiting South Korean Minister of Knowledge Economy Sukwoo Hong, in which the Korean side raised the issue of delays in Posco project clearance, an official statement said.
Four senior Posco-India officials including three South Korean nationals were on Saturday taken hostage by anti-project activists, but were released unharmed seven hours later, official sources said. The officials and South Korean nationals were taken hostage after they went to the project site near Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district and were taken hostage around 10.30 am by the anti-project activists demanding its scrapping.
Industrialist Gautam Adani-led Adani Group has signed a pact with South Korea's Posco to explore business opportunities in sectors like steel, renewable energy among others. Both the entities have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this effect. In a statement on Thursday, Adani Group said the investment under the MoU is estimated to be up to $5 billion.
Posco-India, the Indian subsidiary of South Korean steel major Posco, would play a major role in powering Orissa's economy as per a recent study conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research.
Posco's mega steel plant in Orissa is inching forward with the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests clearing a proposal under which Posco will plant trees on an area equivalent in size to the forest land where the project is coming up.
South Korean steel giant Posco has begun the feasibility study for its proposed Rs 52,000 crore (Rs 520 billion) steel project in India while keeping out its mining partner BHP Billiton from the detailed study besides kick starting the process of for
Villagers protesting the location of South Korean steel major Posco's proposed 12 million tonne steel project near here blocked all major roads leading to the project site after Orissa government issued land acquisition notice.
The protest against the Posco project in Orissa has intensified with anti-Posco agitators taking hostage three Posco officials at the project site near Paradip in Orissa.
PPSS leaders said they have been demanding stoppage of survey work, but the administration has ignored their pleas.
The Supreme Court on Friday cleared South Korean steel major Posco's plans to set up a Rs 51,000 crore (Rs 510 billion) mega steel plant and captive minor port in Paradeep, Orissa.A special environmental bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan allowed Posco India Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Korea-based Posco, to go ahead with the project, for which an agreement was signed with Orissa government on June 22, 2005.
The South Korean steel major Posco, proposing a 12 million tonne greenfield steel plant near Paradip in Orissa, will announce an additional package for the project displaced families after the Supreme Court clears its forest diversion proposal. "Posco will announce an additional package for the families to be displaced after Supreme Court clears the forest diversion proposal," said Priyabrata Patnaik, the nodal officer, Posco India project.
South Korean steel giant Posco's 12 million tonne integrated steel project in Orissa is likely to face further delay.
Sources told PTI that the Environment Ministry's Expert Appraisal Committee of Coastal Regulation Zone at a meeting asked Posco to give additional information on the captive port near its proposed 12 million tonnes per annum plant in Jagathsinghpur in Orissa that is also awaiting green nod.
The South Korean steel major Posco, facing stiff opposition from the local people for acquisition of land for its 12-million-tonne steel project in Orissa, may have to directly negotiate with the project affected villagers.
The much-delayed $12 billion Posco steel project in Odisha is set to be operational in the next few weeks and granting of mining concession to the South Korean firm was in an advanced stage of processing, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday.
State-owned SAIL would set up a steel plant in joint venture with South Korean major Posco for which it had already inked an MoU, its chairman S K Roongta said.
South Korean steelmaker Posco's project in Orissa is on track and issues related to rehabilitation of people would be resolved soon to expedite the pace of its 12-million-tonne steel plant, the state's top official said on Tuesday. He said the case for recommendation of lease to Posco was being monitored.
South Korean steel giant Posco's wait for a mining licence in Orissa has got a little longer.
In the present framework, he said the ministry will talk to states to expedite the process of granting iron ore leases to ArcelorMittal and South Korean steel giant Posco.
Sharma agrees to expedite the Odisha project; offers clarity to Tesco on sourcing norms; to meet Etihad delegation.
The Posco India hostage crisis came to an end late on Friday night, with the Gobindpur villagers releasing the company executives they had taken captive earlier in the day, according to TV channels.
Frustrated over delays in getting approvals for its Rs 52,000 crore (Rs 520 billion) steel project, South Korean steel giant Posco is reviewing its investment plans in India while looking at other options in South East Asia.
The Jagatsinghpur district administration, under whose jurisdiction the site falls, has decided to convene a meeting of the Rehabilitation and Periphery Development Advisory Committee next week to finalise land valuation, compensation and rehabilitation packages. Even after three years of signing of MoU with the state government, the Posco project was a non starter due to stiff opposition by the locals led by PPSS activists.
The Karnataka government is actively considering the possibility of changing the location for a proposed steel plant of Posco in north-central Gadag district; instead offer the South Korean major an alternative land elsewhere in the state. The move comes after the farmers of Halligudi village stiffly opposed plans to acquire their "fertile" land ahead of starting work on the project.
The Orissa government on Tuesday rejected the demand to scrap Posco's steel project, saying the Rs 51,000-crore (Rs 510 billion) project could contribute 11.5 per cent to the state's gross domestic products in terms of value addition.
South Korean steel major Posco will start construction of its 12 million tonne, Rs 51,000-crore mega steel project near Paradip in Orissa on April 1, 2008.
The Orissa government's move to grant prospecting licence to South Korean steel major Posco for its proposed 12 million tonne steel plant in the state has hit a roadblock.
South Korean steel major Posco's beleagured Rs 52,000 crore (Rs 520 billion) project near Paradip has received a boost with the Centre according environmental clearance to its captive minor port at Jatadhari mouth in Jagatsinghpur district.
The government's revalidation of the environment clearance for its steel plant in Odisha may not go far and it may still be years before the project takes off.
When the first phase of the Rs 52,000 crore (Rs 520 billion) steel plant of Posco-India, the Indian subsidiary of South Korean company Posco is completed by 2010 around 7,000 people would get direct employment.
