The Centre’s renewal of the stand-alone environmental clearance for Posco’s eight million tonnes per annum steel plant comes after the Ministry of Environment overturned its earlier decision and de-link the assessment of other components of the integrated project planned in Odisha.
Documents available with The Hindu show that the Ministry had found it difficult till December-end to give the nod for the project as the South Korean steel giant was unable to give information on the port.
Though the Ministry’s expert panel had reviewed and cleared the case for the steel plant in May, the Ministry awaited the clearance for the port.
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The Ministry’s file notings show the company approached the Ministry over the issue of its possessing only 1,703 acres of the planned 2,700-acre plot. The company noted that the rest of the land could not be taken over as the National Green Tribunal had stayed cutting of trees on the land till it adjudicated on the issue of forest clearance under the Forest Conservation Act. Petitioners before the tribunal had contended that the company had cut trees on the land without securing a formal letter of forest clearance from the State government. The State has so far failed to issue the letter even after the Centre agreed to it in 2012.