Bloomberg reported that India will this month resume the compulsory land purchases to enable POSCO to begin building a USD 12 billion steel plant.

Three people familiar with the plans said that the Odisha state government will acquire another 700 acres, adding to the 2,000 already bought. They said that land land will be given to the South Korean steelmaker in October and construction could begin by the end of the year.

The factory in the eastern state, billed as the biggest foreign investment in India, has been delayed by more than seven years by farmers refusing to vacate government-owned land they have occupied for generations. A revival of the state’s land acquisition process may signal the government’s commitment to push through stalled investments to resuscitate an economy growing at the slowest pace in three years.

Mr Niraj Shah a steel analyst at Fortune Equity Brokers Ltd said that “Let’s see if they are actually able to acquire land this time. This process has been going on for years. Even if POSCO gets the land, it will take years to build the factory and tie up its raw material needs.”

Source - Bloomberg

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