KENDRAPARA: The district administration on Friday started verification work to acquire 383 acre of land for the proposed steel plant of ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel (AM/NS) India in the seaside Badatubi village under Batighar gram panchayat under Mahakalapada block.
Land acquisition officer and Kendrapara deputy collector Kuini Jena said verification of land ownership and related details is a crucial step before acquisition of land for any proposed project. “We are identifying the rightful owners of land by checking record of rights, title deeds, encumbrance certificates and other relevant documents. It also involves checking for any existing dispute, legal issue or encumbrance (mortgages or loans) related to the land,” Jena said.
The verification work will be completed soon. Subsequently, the acquired land will be handed over to AM/NS India to establish the steel plant. All displaced villagers will get proper compensation as per the law, the officer added.
On December 3 last year, the state government had issued a notification under section 8 (2) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 to acquire 383 acre of land at Badatubi village in the first phase for AM/NS India to establish a 24 MTPA state-of-the-art steel plant at a cost of Rs 1.02 lakh crore.
Earlier on August 21, 2021, executive chairman of ArcelorMittal Lakshmi Niwas Mittal visited the proposed steel plant site in the seaside villages under Mahakalapada block .
Subsequently, the then chief minister Naveen Patnaik announced that Nippon Steel Corporation will build the world’s largest steel plant in Odisha after meeting its president Eiji Hashimoto in Tokyo during his Japan tour in April 2023.