R. SURYAMURTHY
Telegraph

New Delhi, Dec. 6: Korea’s Posco has sought more time from the Board of Approval for Special Economic Zones to acquire land for a steel plant in Orissa.

This comes close on the heels of a visit by a company delegation to Karnataka, which is attracting investments in steel.

Posco India Private Limited is seeking an extension for the third time from the board of approval headed by commerce secretary Rahul Khullar. The board is likely to take a decision on December 15. The steel giant plans to set up the Rs 51,000-crore integrated plant at Kujanga near the Paradip port.

Senior commerce ministry officials said, “The board of approval has to consider the circumstances, which have led to the delay in land acquisition. When the project is approved, the developer gets one year to acquire the land and the SEZ rules provide for granting two extensions of a year each.”

The zones that get in-principle approval have to complete land acquisition within a year of approval, while a formally approved SEZ with land under possession has to make the tax-free enclave operational within three years.

The in-principle approval was granted to Posco India’s Orissa steel project in October 2006. Subsequently, two extensions were granted in 2007 and 2008 . The last extension was valid till October 25.

“The developer has requested for a further extension stating that they are committed to the project, and because of certain issues in acquiring a large tract of land for a multi-product SEZ, they have not been able to meet the minimum land requirement within the stipulated period,” officials said.

Posco India sources said they were committed to the Orissa project, and the visit of company officials at the invitation of Karnataka government was an “exploratory” trip — that does not mean we “would abandon the Orissa project”.

After much delay and resistance by the local people, the Supreme Court had allowed Orissa to let Posco construct the plant on forest land.

Out of the 4,004 acres allotted to Posco by the state government, 3,300 acres are forest land.

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2. URGENT APPEAL FROM ANTI-POSCO PEOPLE”S MOVEMENT IN ORISSA