No shifting of project site: Posco-India chairman Dong-He Lee

BHUBANESWAR: South Korean steel major Pohang Steel Company (Posco) on Wednesday ruled out any possibility of shifting its 12-million-ton integrated steel plant site from Kujang area near Paradip in Orissa to some other locations in the country.

The company made it clear that all obstacles facing the project in the state were expected to be sorted out by the end 2009 and ground leveling work would begin early next year.

���There is a rumour in certain circles about shifting of the project. We would like to make it clear that the project would come up at its present site,��� chairman of Posco-India Dong-He Lee told reporters soon after meeting with the chief minister at the state secretariat here.

He also set aside the speculation that the Dhinkia panchayat ��� a part of the plant site ��� would be dropped from the demarcated project area due to opposition by the local people.

���Posco is trying to address all concerns and we are hopeful everything would go on smoothly,��� Mr Lee said.

The chairman���s reaction came in response to reports in the media quoting union mines minister B.K. Handique as saying that the company has decided to shift.

Stating that the company had sorted out many intricate problems in the past couple of years, Mr Lee said other legal barriers would be solved shortly. To a query, the chairman said to give a momentum to the Rs 52,000-crore project, Posco authorities had decided to segregate steel project from the mining project which were treated as one in the memorandum of understanding signed with the state government in June, 2005.

The project ��� which was supposed to start product by 2011, is running almost two years behind the schedule to displacement problem at the project site as well as the mining site at Khandadhar in Sundergarh district.