Posco gets conditional green clearance

Bhubaneswar, Jan 9 :

South Korean steel major Posco has received conditional revalidation of environment clearance from the environment ministry for its $12-billion steel project in Odisha, a company official said Thursday.

The decision comes days ahead of South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s four-day visit to India beginning Jan 15.

The state government signed an agreement with Posco in 2005 for the project, the largest foreign direct investment in India.

The proposed 12-million-tonne-per-annum plant near Paradip port town in Jagatsinghpur district, about 100 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, was given a five-year environment clearance in July 2007.

The revalidation of the clearance was necessary for the company to proceed on the project, the official told IANS.

The revalidation was granted on the condition that the company will spend five percent of its investment on “enterprise social commitments”, he said.

( This would mean the company will spend $600 million on “social commitments”, raising the project’s cost by  to $12.6 billion.)

The government has already acquired 2,700 acres of land required for the first phase of the project (eight million tonnes per annum). (IANS)