Posco tangle: No consensus yet on company’s Odisha plant

Bhubaneswar/New Delhi: The tripartite meeting of Cabinet Secretary, Secretaries of Steel and Mines, the Odisha government, and Posco officials in New Delhi today to look for ways to help the South Korean steel maker set up a plant in the State has remained inconclusive as the company reportedly showed unwillingness to participate in the auction process of mines.

Though officials present in the meeting denied to comment anything on the outcome, sources said the company expressed reluctance to bid in the auction process to feed its 12 MTPA proposed steel plant in Jagatsingpur district.

During the hour-long discussion, the company officials stated the State government must abide by the MoU it signed with the company in 2005 to supply 600mt raw material for the plant.

Now, since today’s discussion cut no ice on the issue, everybody’s eyes are on chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s scheduled meet with union finance minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi in the first week of September.

Patnaik is likely to meet Jaitley in a bid to salvage the 12 million tonne capacity steel project proposed by Posco in the State.

The Rs 52,000 crore project, the highest FDI in the country, has not progressed much due to several reasons including local protest over land acquisition after the State Government signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Posco in 2005.

Though the MoU between the State government and Posco for establishment of the steel plant has lapsed since the last six years, it is yet to be renewed.

The State government recently reiterated that it will provide all assistance to Posco to set up the steel plant at Paradip.

“The State government is ready to provide all assistance, but Posco should spell out what help it wants from the government,” Industries Minister Debi Prasad Mishra had said.