South Korean steel major Posco and 16 other SEZ developers have sought more time from the government to execute their respective projects. Posco India, a subsidiary of Posco, is yet to acquire land from the Orissa government for its SEZ.
The Board of Approval (BoA) for SEZ projects, which is headed by commerce secretary Rahul Khullar, is set to meet on November 28 to take up the matter, sources said.
The Rs 53,000-crore multi-product SEZ of Posco is expected to be set up at Jagatsinghpur in Orissa.
“The developer has requested for extending the validity, stating that the Orissa government has leased 245.778 hectares of land. The environment ministry had on May 2 accorded approval to the Orissa government for diversion of 1,253 hectares of forest land. The forest land is likely to be leased by December, 2011,” said the Posco letter.
The SEZ has to come up on 1,620.49 hectares in Orissa.
Approval in principle was granted to the project in October 2009, which was subsequently extended till October 2011.
Besides Posco, 16 SEZ developers including Gitanjali Gems and Parsvnath, have asked for extension to execute their projects.