Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, August 3, 2015 : The Odisha government on Monday began a last ditch exercise to save the POSCO project – the single biggest FDI (foreign direct investment) to the state.

The state steel and mines minister, Prafulla Mallick told the media persons that it would seek a review of the prestigious project by the prime minister.

“We want the Posco project to be reviewed by the Prime minister or at least at the level of cabinet secretary. The chief secretary of the state will soon write to the union mines secretary or the prime minister’s office (PMO) regarding this”, Mallick added.

The Naveen Patnaik even now feigns ignorance of the move by the South Korean steel major Posco to temporarily freeze its 12 million ton mega steel plant near Paradeep due to regulatory and mining issues by stating that it has not received any communication from Posco about its recent decision to halt the project.

The company has already surrendered over 7000 sq ft of its office space here. It is also considering to give back the remaining 5000 sq ft facility in due course, sources said.

The steel major’s decision is largely influenced by a decline in global demand of steel. Besides, its primary aim of choosing Odisha as the location of its green field project is access to iron ore mine, which has been shattered by the recent Mines and Minerals [Development and Regulation] Act [MMDR], of the Centre that denies preferential allocation of mines to any corporate without bidding.

To make matters worse, the South Korean steel major and the state government had been playing in a deadlock over costs incurred in land acquisition as well. Out of the Rs 95 crore land acquisition cost raised by the Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO), POSCO India has so far paid only Rs 54 crore.

Meanwhile, the union minister of state for steel and mines Vishnu Deo Sai on Monday informed Lok Sabha that his ministry had received a proposal from the Odisha government for grant of prospecting licence to POSCO for iron ore in Odisha.

It may be noted that the Centre on April 7, 2015, had advised the Odisha government to examine whether the application is eligible under Section 10A of the MMDR Act, 2015. In case the application is found to be eligible, the Centre would take further action based on the recommendation of the state government, he clarified.