By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : The Orissa government Thursday held a meeting to review 14 greenfield projects underway in the state, an official said.
“We reviewed the progress of 14 big projects. We had representatives of these companies to know what problems they are facing in acquiring land, rehabilitation of the displaced, power and water supply. We also reviewed the social responsibility measures these companies agreed to implement,” state Steel and Mines Minister Raghunath Mohanty said.
The combined value of these proposals is Rs.2 trillion (nearly $40 billion) and the government claims that Rs.21,031.71 crore (nearly $520 million) have been invested so far.
“Almost all the projects are progressing well except Posco which has acquired only 516 acres of the 6,000 acres allotted to it. We are trying to sort out land acquisition and other problems,” he added.
Posco, one of the world’s biggest steel makers, signed a deal with the Orissa government in June 2005 to set up a $12 billion plant near the port town of Paradip in the coastal district of Jagatsinghpur, some 100 km from here, by 2016.
The minister said that the Tata project for setting up a 6 million tonne-capacity steel plant in Kalinga Nagar would start soon.