South Korean steel major Posco on Friday crossed a major hurdle for setting up its proposed plant near Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district as the National Green Tribunal (NGT) asked the Odisha Government to take its own decision on the tree felling case at the project site.
Sources said the NGT asked the State Government to take a decision as per the Forest Conservation Act.
In May last, the NGT had ordered a status quo on tree and betel vine felling at the project site until a decision was taken on its lapsed environmental clearance. Acting on a plea filed by activist Prafulla Samantara, the tribunal had rejected the 2011 conditional clearance and asked for a review.
Now that the NGT has asked the State Government to decide on the matter, the project construction work is expected to take off soon, industry analysts feel, given the fact that the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) recently granted the environmental clearance to the Posco project by delinking it from the company’s proposed captive port project.
Besides, soon after the environment approval, the State Government has also recommended the Centre to grant prospective licence (Pl) for the Khandadhar mines in Sundergarh district to Posco.
Official sources said the State Government would soon expedite the process to give an additional 1,000 acres of land to the Posco project to start the groundbreaking ceremony for the unit.
Stating that the State Government has already handed over 1,703 acres of land for the Rs 51,000-crore project, Posco now requires the remaining of 2,700 acres for setting up as 8-MTPA steel plant in the first phase.
The company, according to its MoU with the State Government in 2005, had required a total of 4,004 acres of land for establishing a 12-MTPA plant.