World’s third-largest steel maker, the South Korean giant Posco, has decided to initiate the construction work on the proposed Rs 52,000 crore project to start the 12 million tonne steel plant in Orissa. The South Korean company has said that it would start the construction work by October this year.

Posco India CMD Soung Sik Cho said that the company has now decided to start the construction work in the entire 12 MT project planned in Jagatsinghpur district in Orissa by October. The company would start working on whatever land it has acquired till the date.

Earlier, it was being said that the Posco was planning to drop the idea to set the 12 million tonne steel plant in Orissa because of the delay in the project Now, Cho’s assertion has made it clear that the Posco had never thought to drop the plan.

Cho said:

We believe things have undergone a sea-change during the last few months. People are clearly convinced that they will benefit from the project.

Now they have a better understanding of the entire situation. The things are now looking much brighter. We have also received the official nod for our captive port project at Jatadhari, which has also encouraged us.

The Union government has also granted environmental approval to the Posco project in Orissa. It was the result of the consistent pressure mounted by the Naveen Patnaik government on the Centre to take the mega investment process in forward direction.

According to the report, the Posco has decided to start the construction on the 400 acres of non-forest land. The company is also looking forward to get the revenue land from the Orissa government for the project.

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