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*Without mining lease, Posco may shut shop*
*Feb 3: *The $ 12-billion Posco project in Orissa may have reached a
dead-end. Posco India chief Soung-sik Cho has said that the project makes no
business sense without a mining lease and senior state government officials
have made it obvious that they are willing to let go of the project.
"We would in no way allow a Nandigram or Kalinga Nagar-like bloodbath for
the Posco project. We would not repeat those mistakes. We would rather let
the project go or shift it from its present site," senior Orissa government
officials told FE.
"The politically biased society here is posing lots of hurdles in setting up
the steel plant and has resulted in a delay of more than a year," said
Soung-sik Cho to FE. "We, however, do not intend to withdraw unless asked to
leave. Both the governments (the Centre and the state) are trying their best
to see that this biggest foreign direct investment goes through."
The dispute over mines may provide the Naveen Patnaik led Orissa government
the excuse to shelve the project, wracked with agitations for more than two
years from local villagers who refused to give up land for the SEZ.
Asked if the company would still go ahead with the project if mines were not
allocated, Soung-sik said, "It is not likely to happen. Without mines, there
is no reason to come to India, and it is not a viable proposition to set up
a plant here then."
An assured supply of iron ore would compensate for problems such as poor
infrastructure, communication, power and problems relating to land
acquisition, he added.
While the Orissa government is still making a last-ditch attempt to save the
project by convincing locals about its benefits and also renegotiating the
rehabilitation package with them, it is more hopeful about the other mega
project, the $9 billion ArcelorMittal steel project. Officials said the
project is on course for which land would be acquired in Keonjhar district
of the state.
To avoid a Posco-like situation, the officials of ArcelorMittal are talking
to the local inhabitants before the land acquiring exercise begins. "The
company officials are currently mobilising grassroots feedback for the
project,'' said the government official.
Land acquisition for the Posco plant has been the biggest hurdle for the Rs
47,000-crore. It needs 4,004 acres of which only 300 acres are agricultural
land. "There is actually no agriculture happening on 300 acres," said a
company official.
The company had also claimed that of the eight villages where land was
needed to be acquired, seven had signed up. But the heightened political
sensitivity in a pre-election year means even that one pocket of resistance
is a potential flashpoint. "No way would we allow violence. It (the project)
would not be at the cost of the people. Unlike Nandigram, there is no
communication deadlock with the locals for acquiring the necessary land,"
said another government official.
Monday , February 04, 2008 at 0041 hrs IST
financialexpress.com/news/Without-mining-lease--Posco-may-shut-shop/268804
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