BHUBANESWAR: The State Government on Friday said it is yet to decide on utilisation of the land acquired for Posco's proposed mega plant near Paradip for any other purpose after the South Korean Steel major announced that the `51,000 crore project has been temporarily freezed.
"The Posco authorities who proposed to set up a 12 MTPA Greenfield steel mill near Paradip are yet to inform the State Government about withdrawal from the project,'' Steel and Mines Minister Prafulla Kumar Mallick told the Assembly.
In a written reply to a question from Bhujabal Majhi (Congress), the Minister, quoting media reports, said the company has decided to temporarily freeze the project. ''Therefore, the State Government so far has not thought of utilising the land for any other purpose," he said.
The State Government had earlier acquired 2,752.3 acre of land against Posco's first phase requirement of 2,700 acre. Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation had handed over 1,880.110 acre of land to the steel major and remaining land was in the process of being given to the company.