What is POSCO taking away as part of this MoU, what are the people of Orissa getting in return and what is the Indian government getting?
And why has the state government been stingy with information? According to the MoU, POSCO will construct a steel plant at Paradeep in Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa with an annual production capacity of 12 million tonnes steel with the plant planning to produce 3 million tonnes of steel by the year 2010 and 12 million tonnes by 2016. The company will spend Rs 51,000 crore for this plant in phases. To help POSCO produce steel, the Orissa government has promised to hand over coal mines to POSCO so that they may produce their own electricity. POSCO will have to make no payments for the use of these mines. As per this plan, POSCO needs 600 million tonnes of ore from the government of Orissa. Free. POSCO, in fact plans to export 30% of the coal and in addition bring in similar amounts from Brazil to use in this plant. In addition, there seem to be clauses that may allow POSCO to take away up to 400 million tonnes to Korea. For free. Iron Ore is available at Rs. 2000 to Rs. 26000 per ton.
