Bhubaneswar: Four years after withdrawing from its Jagatsinghpur project, South Korean Steel behemoth Posco seems to be eyeing Odisha again with a proposed Rs 90,000 crore steel plant.
The investment hopes were rekindled during a roundtable on ‘South Korea and Odisha: Promoting Bilateral Business Opportunities’. Ambassador of South Korea to India Shin Bongkil informed that the steel giant is planning to make one of the single largest FDI in the history of India with an investment of US $12 billion to set up an integrated steel plant in Odisha.
In 2017, Posco had scrapped the greenfield project in Odisha and offered to return 2,700 acres of land provided to it near Paradip for setting up a 12 mtpa steel plant with an investment of Rs 52,000 crore. The changes in the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act proved to be an impediment as the state government could no longer commit captive mines for the plant in Jagasinghpur.
Posco-India had signed an agreement with the state government on June 21, 2005, for setting up its mega steel facility and sought 4,004 acres of land for the project.
Bongkil further said that 66 new Korean companies have entered India in the last one year.
The event was organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce in association with IPICOL.
Industry Minister Divya Shankar Mishra and senior officers of the department participated.
