The following is extracted from an ndtvprofit.com report.

• The state government, Posco agreed to April 1 deadline as the date was significant for both Orissa and the steel major. It is observed as ‘Utkal Divas’ and also the anniversary of Posco, Lee said.
• During the discussion, Patnaik pointed out that 512 acres of government land had already been sanctioned to Posco, while 3,000 acres of forest land was cleared by the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), official sources said.

  Posco required 4,004 acres near Paradip to set up its proposed 12 mtpa capacity steel mill which had been facing opposition from the local people. “Though land was ready for handover to Posco, this could not be done in the face of stiff opposition from the local people,” they said.

• Patnaik said the state government would complete hearing of all applications for Khandadhar mines in Sundargarh district by November, sources said.

  Orissa government had already recommended the name of the South Korean company for the Prospecting Licence (PL), they said.

• Patnaik urged Lee to immediately commence construction of transit accommodation for the displaced people and a training center for imparting technical education to local youths so that they could be provided with jobs in future.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Statesman.

The state forest department has embarked on a project to renovate a unique Victorian-structured marvel as a part of its eco-tourism package in the internationally acclaimed Bhitarkanika Ramsar wetland site.

The 141-year-old sprawling Hukitola building, which carries the proof of excellent British architectural skill with rainwater harvesting system, has finally drawn the attention of the government agencies after it was neglected for years.

“The gigantic structure on the Mahanadi deltaic region has been taken up for maintenance by the department. We are going to have a forest watch tower there. To promote tourism, we will have boats to carry people from the Paradip port town. The place nestled in the deltaic-shaped elevated landscape is blessed with rich mangrove forests. Its proximity to the shore would make way for tourism,” said the divisional forest Officer, Rajnagar Mangrove Forest Division, Mr Ajay Kumar Jena.

The department would start its operation within a week. Keeping in view this fact that Paradip is fast emerging as a bustling industrial hub, tourism would receive the much-needed boost.

“The tranquil environment in and around Hukitola are strikingly similar to that of the Bhitarkanika wetland. Thus a voyage to Hukitola would be a visual treat for the tourists. The British structure will be an added attraction,” Mr Jena said.
While ravages of time has threatened its existence, its conservation is necessary. “It’s a priceless treasure. We had taken up the proposal for its maintenance with the Union finance commission grants earmarked for maintenance of ancient monuments,” Mr Jena said.

The building has a total plinth area of more than 7,000 square feet.

Rediff reports that the new SEZ policy has been announced by the Govt.

Excerpts”

The National Policy on Rehabilitation and Resettlement, 2007, which was cleared at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, provides for land-for-land compensation, besides preference to affected families for jobs in projects coming up on their plots.”“The new policy seeks to make those entitled for compensation stakeholders in development by allowing them to take up to 20 per cent of the amount in the form of shares if the acquiring entity is authorised to issue these instruments.

“With prior approval of the government, this proportion can be as high as 50 per cent of the rehabilitation grant and compensation amount,” the Rural Development Ministry said.

The policy discourages speculative transactions of land acquired for public purposes. As a relief for developers, 30 per cent land can be compulsorily acquired by states for the promoters while the rest has to be bought by them.”

Reliance has welcomed this policy. It remains to be seen what implications this has on POSCO which wants SEZ status for it’s project.

Following are excerpts from a New Indian Express report on this.

Tata’s budget hotel chain Ginger is expected to open doors to foodies in Paradip and Konark by the end of 2008.

Chief executive officer of Roots Corporation, Prabhat Pani said, they have already acquired one acre of land each in both these towns and would start construction in the next two months. Plans are also afoot to come up with a Ginger hotel in industrial towns like Jharsuguda, Angul and Kalinga Nagar in the next couple of years.

Roots Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Group and manages the Ginger chain of hotels. The company entered into the State in September last year with the launch of Ginger in the city.

Following is an excerpt from a New Indian Express report.

The Assembly Committee on Industry has suggested that dedicated industrial parks should be set up for micro, small and medium scale industries in Kalinga Nagar, Jharsuguda, Paradip, Rayagada, Angul and Dhenkanal in view of the large number of mega industries coming up in several industrial zones in the State.

In its latest report, the committee said such parks should be specially earmarked for ancillary and downstream industries. It observed that considering the importance of the small and medium enterprises in employment generation and economic growth of the State, priority attention should be given for the revival and promotion of these sectors.

Official sources maintained that till November, 2006, investment in these two sectors had touched Rs 2,652.8 crore with employment generation of 5.48 lakh. Cluster approach has been adopted for development of small scale industries and major clusters have been identified for development and marketing linkage with the assistance of United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).

The panel, however, observed that though 45 MoUs had been signed for establishment of steel plants in the State, progress has not been satisfactory. Of these, 20 companies have invested Rs 12,085 crore and started commercial production by December, 2006. These companies have created direct employment opportunities for 9,131 persons.

In the steel sector, investment has been estimated at Rs 1,86,499 crore with a total capacity of 73.43 million ton per annum. In the aluminium sector, two companies have signed MoUs with a proposed investment of Rs 25,000 crore.

Indian Oil Corporation is also setting up a refinery and petrochemical complex of 15 million ton capacity per annum with an investment of Rs 25,000 crore. Official sources said a chemical and petrochemical investment region is proposed to be set up at Paradip.

The committee has suggested that polytechnics should be established in all districts of the State and industrial training centres in all the block headquarters.

Besides, the 10 ITIs in the State should be upgraded gradually with 75 percent Central assistance, it added.

Update: The Orissa government’s tourism web page has additional information on the Shamuka beach project.

Following is an excerpt on this from Expresshospitality.com.

Shamuka Beach in Orissa near Puri is being developed as a high-end luxury tourism destination by the Orissa Tourism Development Corporation. The department has acquired a 1000 acre property south of Puri, and is in the process of acquiring 2000 acres more. It is a natural island and is being developed by the name Shamuka Beach project. Divulging further details about the project, Asit K Tripathi, secretary, Orissa Tourism, says, "It is going to be one of India’s best integrated, dedicated and up market tourism project, with only 5-star hotels. We had advertised and the response has been overwhelming. We have got responses from leading players in the country as well as abroad. ITC-Welcomgroup, the DLF-Hilton combine, Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, IHHR’s Ananda Spa, Casino Group of Hotels Earth (CGH Earth), The Oberoi Group, Apeejay Surrendra Group, Marriott International, and Carlson Hotels Asia Pacific have all shown interest. We can allot land to approximately 20 national and international hotel brands. We are coming out with a blue print to develop infrastructure. The third stage will be to establish a golf course and convention center. This will raise the value of Orissa as a leisure destination." "Although we have 934 hotels in Orissa and 2000 rooms, the majority cater to primarily low spending groups, and the rest target high spending tourists or corporates. With this initiative, within 1-2 years, we will have more quality rooms," says Devi Prasad Mishra, tourism minister, Orissa. Samukha Beach and Puri, as well as industrial growth centers like Paradeep, Talcher, Kalinganagar, as well as Jharsuguda and Angul have generated interest from the hospitality industry in recent times – especially budget hotels and business hotels. The no-frills brand of The Indian Hotels Company, Ginger Hotels opened their first hotel in Bhubaneshwar. Carlson Hotels Asia Pacific plans to open its Radisson Hotels & Resorts in Chilika, Puri and Bhubaneswar. Cabana Group, the master licensee of the world-renowned chain of hotels – Best Western International from California is setting-up an international standard culinary college cum 5-star property in Bhubaneswar, and is eyeing Puri to develop the brand.

Following are excerpts from a report in Statesman.

… Mr Bijay Kumar Panda, head of Essar Steel Orissa highlighted the advantages of his proposed project yesterday.

Mr Panda said that the people of Nuagada, Udayabata and Bijaychandpur are keen on an early establishment of the proposed steel plant.

Barring a couple of organizations, the people at large are interested in the project and they have accepted the RR policy adopted by the company, he claimed.

Mr Panda informed that Essar Steel Orissa Ltd (ESOL), which is fully owned by Essar Steel Ltd, is going to set up a 6 million tone per annum integrated steel plant at the cost of Rs 15,000 corers.

The project would require 1900 acres of land out of which 270 acres would be government land and the rest, private. He informed that the number of displaced families have not yet been ascertained because the land survey has not been completed.

He said that the company, the government and the people had all agreed to a rate of Rs 9.50 lakh per acre as compensation and that some people had already provided their land at the said rate.

Balram Parida of Nuagada village who had given his 70 decimals land for the project said he had also requested the Essar authority to emply his son. Speaking of the project, Mr Panda informed that the technology selected will be eco –friendly and increase the iron ore reserves. He said that a beneficiation plant is located at Joda and Barbil so beneficiated ore will be transported through a slurry pipe line to Joda. Supply of iron ore through the pipe line will be cheaper too, he added.

He also informed 5500 people will be employed. The company will set up a 200 mega watt captive thermal power plant.

Meanwhile, the Paradip Krushak Manch has threatened to agitate if Essar failed to increase the compensation to Rs 25 lakh per acre.

The orissa.gov.in site has a page on PPP (private-public partnership) which contains the Orissa draft PPP policy and a list of projects in Orissa planned to be funded through PPP. Following are excerpts from a recent report in Telegraph.

The Orissa government is planning to invest Rs 125,000 crore in 36 infrastructure projects to be taken up under the private-public-partnership programme.

…Under the programme, the state government will leverage its financial resources with that of the Centre, to prepare a shelf of projects. These will be taken forward through a transparent selection process. There will also be viability gap funding, if the projects are initially loss-making.

The policy will also create Orissa Infrastructure Development Fund with a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore. Projects that are part of the programme include roads, bridges, ports and harbours, airports, airstrips, inland container depots, industrial parks, special economic zones and townships.

“We have already entered into agreements with IL&FS and PricewaterhouseCoopers, who will be the consultants for these projects. A few more will be empanelled soon,” said Parag Gupta, special secretary of the state secretariat’s public-private-partnership cell. …

Sources said IL&FS was picked as a consultant because of its joint venture with state-run Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation for the Bhubaneswar Integrated Road Network project. PwC is also a consultant for several road projects. The state has also signed an agreement with the Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (IDFC) in this regard. IDFC is funding some projects in association with Nabard.

“Two more consultants, including Ernst and Young and another Calcutta-based firm, will be enrolled soon,” the sources said.

The empanelled agencies will help identify projects that need to be taken up, prepare pre-feasibility and detailed project reports. They will then hand the reports over to respective departments.

Some of the projects being taken up are the Capital Region Ring Road, to span 98km, and the Bhubaneswar-Paradip Road, a 90km stretch. Each of the projects will cost around Rs 700 crore. They will be executed by the state public works department.

Other projects include sector-specific infotech SEZs, which will cost around Rs 352 crore and an IT & corporate tower in Bhubaneswar to be set up for Rs 146 crore.

Following are excerpts from a sify.com report.

State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is setting up an oil refinery-cum-petrochemical complex at Paradip in Orissa, with an installed capacity of 15 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) at an estimated cost of Rs 25,646 crore.

”The project is expected to be completed by October 2011,” Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

He said the land acquisition was carried out by Orissa Government by consent agreement under section 11(2) of the Land Acquisition Act, based on the compensation package for private land fixed by Orissa Government in October, 1999.

IOC has already acquired 3,347 acres of land for Paradip Refinery Project.

The progress made on the various phases of the project includes the construction of bridges over Santra Creek, approach road including railway over-bridge for the refinery connecting NH-5A to refinery site have been completed.

Tecnological selection for all major units has been completed.

Residential accommodation for construction phase, CISF colony, coastal approach road and green belt development are under various stages of construction.

Project Management Consultant (PMC) has been selected for Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) phase of the project on December 1, 2006.

Patel said the environmental clearance for the project has been received on July 6, 2007.

He added an amount of Rs 2281.87 crore has been sanctioned for Paradip Refinery project for carrying out pre-project activities, out of which, Rs 778.32 crore has been spent as on July 31, this year.

Following up on the report in our previous entry, another political party, albeit with a small presence in Orissa, has come out in support of POSCO. Following is an excerpt from Pioneer.

The Samajwadi Party has lent its support to the pro-Posco villagers in their bid to cooperate with the officials for land acquisition for the company’s steel project. The party’s State president Baisnab Charan Parida, in a statement, said adequate compensation to the evacuees and their proper rehabilitation, training to the local people for employment and a thorough discussion with the supporters and opponents of Posco on development of education, health and communication facilities in the peripheral area by the company official as well as the State Government should be taken up at the earliest.

In an era of globalisation, if a country hesitates to open up its economy and decry establishment of industries by multinationals, it would remain backward, he added.

POSCO has also come up with some novel opportunities for the displaced people. Following are excerpts from a Business Standard report.

Korean major considers offering locals an export market in addition to compensation.

Korean steel giant Posco is taking a novel route to persuade land-owners to sell their land in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district where its Rs 52,000 crore, 12 million tonne steel plant is to be located.

Apart from monetary compensation for the land, Posco is offering the 140-odd fishermen families that will be displaced by India’s largest greenfield steel plant an assured market for dried fish and mango pickle in South Korea.

The company, which has been facing stiff resistance from locals who will lose land to the project, proposes to train fishermen in the area to produce the dried fish coveted by Koreans, according to a Posco India spokesman.

“Around 160 families in the periphery have shown interest and will be included in the programme,” he said. He said some 160 families on the periphery of the project had accepted the proposal.

A similar programme is being planned for betel vine cultivators. “They have shown interest in fruit, especially mangoes. We will get pickle manufacturers to collaborate with them and export these products to South Korea,” he added.

A socio economic survey, which is still being conducted, indicates that there are around 50 betel vine owners and 1,000 cultivators for 1,200 betel vines. “Not just the owners, the cultivators will also be included in the programme,” he said.

The plan has been suggested as a solution to the vexed problem of compensating land-losers by offering them sustainable livelihood. At the same time, it will meet a growing demand for dried fish and pickle in Korea. According to reports, Korea’s imports are expected to exceed exports due to depletion of fish resources. Its pickle demand is primarily met by China.

…“The products developed by the fishermen and betel vine cultivators will be exported to Korea through Posco’s captive port. After meeting the demand in the Korean market, they can be exported to South East Asia,” the spokesman said.

Posco India is currently in the last leg of its land-acquisition programme. Of the required land of 4,004 acres, the Orissa government is to provide 3,566 acres (of which it is yet to get possession). The company will have to buy the remaining 438 acres of land directly from land-owners.

The rehabilitation & periphery development advisory committee (RPDAC) is expected to meet shortly to decide on the compensation package. The committee comprises representatives from the government, the company and the local people.

The private land covers three gram panchayats — Gada Kujanga, Muagaon and Dhinkia, the latter being the largest tract covering 200 acres and has been the most aggressive in leading an agitation against Posco’s steel plant.

However, the Posco spokesman said, things have improved and the survey indicated that around 90 per cent of the people wanted to shift to other means of livelihood.

Following is a report from Samaja on this. This is what more legislators of the area should be doing, but without fighting among themselves.

Following is from a PIB.

The Government accorded approval for undertaking six laning of 6,500 km of National Highways comprising 5,700 km of Golden Quadrilateral and balance 800 km on other sections, under National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase-V.    As per the approved implementation mechanism for NHDP Phase-V, stretches of 100 km or more that have been completed at least two years ago and contractual actions on previous contracts have been completed, are being included in the year-wise programme.   Where the distance between two cities is less than 100 km, such stretches are also being included as exception cases.   Cost per km has been estimated as Rs. 6.34 crore. 

            List of proposed stretches of National Highways in different states under NHDP Phase-V is given below:

SIX LANING OF NATIONAL HIGHWAYS

  Feasibility report for seven stretches have been completed by the technical consultants and detailed is given below: 

STATUS OF FEASIBILITY REPORT FOR SEVEN STRETCHES UNDER NHDP PHASE-V.

 Total 203 firms have applied for pre-qualification for eight stretches under NHDP Phase-V.

            NHDP Phase-V is scheduled for completion by December, 2012.   Estimated civil construction cost for Gurgaon-Kotputli-Jaipur of 225 km is Rs. 1517 crores.  The likely time period for completion is 30 months from the appointed date.

This information was given  by the Minister of State for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Shri K.H. Muniyappa in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

Following is Samaja’s report on this.

Following are excerpts from a report in english.chosun.com.

… After a rough start, POSCO is expected to finally have a site allocated for a planned steel mill in India, while an investment in a new Vietnam steel mill is likely to move ahead in October.

According to POSCO on Wednesday, the Indian government recently made it known that they plan to determine whether to give environmental clearance for the 4,004 acre site in Paradip in the province of Orissa.

Some 3,566 acres or 89.1 percent of the site of the planned one-stop steel system belongs to the government. Of that, 3,097 acres (86.9 percent) is forest land. For now, POSCO has only secured 193 acres (4.8 percent).

A POSCO official said, "The final decision has not yet been made, but we heard that the site might be released from the forest zone soon. The state-owned land accounts for nearly 90 percent of our site. In other words, if the area is released from the forest zone, the biggest obstacle to our effort to secure the site disappears."

Following is from a PIB release.

Six laning of 6,500 km of National Highways comprising 5,700 km of Golden      Quadrilateral and 800 km of other sections on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis following, Design, Build, Finance and Operate (DBFO) pattern has been approved at an estimated cost of Rs.41, 210 crore under National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase-V, scheduled for completion by December 2012. List of sections of National Highways in different states is given below:

SIX LANING OF NATIONAL HIGHWAYS

Following are some excerpts from a PTI report in Economic Times.

Setting at rest speculation on the fate of its Rs 52,000 crore steel project, South Korean giant Posco has decided to begin construction work on the 12 million tonne plant in Orissa by October.

“We will begin construction work of our 12 MT project in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district by October on whatever land we have acquired so far,” Posco India Chairman and Managing Director Soung Sik Cho said. …

“We believe things have undergone a sea-change during the last few months. People are clearly convinced that they will benefit from the project. Now they have a better understanding of the entire situation,” he reasoned.

Posco was also enthused after the union government gave environmental approval to the project. Moreover, the Naveen Patnaik government in Orissa has been asked by the Centre to take the mega investment process forward.

“Actually things are now looking much brighter. We have also received the official nod for our captive port project at Jatadhari, which has also encouraged us,” Cho pointed out.

The Korean steel giant has decided to begin construction work initially on 400 acres of non-forest land, and then on the revenue land to be given to it by the Orissa government.

“Now the only issue remains to be resolved is granting captive iron ore mines to us. But here also I believe things are moving in the right direction,” Cho said.

Some of the earlier news reports on national waterways in Orissa are linked from this site. Following is the latest development, as reported in an Indian Express article. Excerpts:

The Parliamentary Standing Committee has shown the green signal to two new national waterways in West Bengal-Orissa and Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu even as it called for an integrated transport policy and an institutional framework for inland water transport. … The other waterway—Talcher-Dhamra stretch of the Brahmni-Kharsua-Dhamra Rivers, Goenkhali-Charbatia stretch of the East Coast canal, Charbatia-Dhamra stretch of Matai River and Mahandai delta rivers between Mangalgadi and Paradip is also up for the national waterway status. Around 18.07 million tonnes of inland water transport traffic is expected to be carried out on the proposed waterway after its full development in eight years time. The traffic is expected to be handled at four terminals—Talcher, Nasirabd, Balasore and Rajnagar and the major cargoes are coal, fertiliser, cement, iron ore, agricultural and industrial products. The Standing Committee, however, has recommended the Government to prepare the road map for an integrated transport policy to include inland water transport, coastal shipping, civil aviation, road transport & highways for enabling better inter-connectivity amongst multiple modes of transport. The Committee has also called for provision of an institutional framework for development of IWT sector so as to increase capacity of IWT agencies, increased cost recovery and commercialisation of IWT industries. In case of the West Bengal-Orissa waterway, the Committee has suggested that another terminal be developed at Geonkhali in West Bengal to enable better traffic handling. It was also noted by the panel that there’s need to develop an action plan to address the growing demand of repair and service facilities of IWT vessels.

The final step for the bill would be to getting approval in both houses of the parliament.

Following up on the standing committee’s recommendation it may be appropriate to establish an airport near Jenapur-Kabatabandha as the ECOR Howrah-Chennai Railway line and NH 200 (Chandikhol-Sukinda-Talcher) intersects the national waterway at that point; NH 5A (Chandikhol-Paradip), NH 5 (Panikoili-Chandikhol) and NH 215 (Panikoili-Keonjhar) are close by; Haridaspur – Paradeep railway line will start very near to that point; Jakhapura-Banspani line also starts close to that point and that airport will serve the greater Kalinga Nagar area where multiple steel plants and other plants are coming up. Going further on that, the Orissa government is supposed to have made a master plan for Kalinga nagar. Following is an excerpt from a year old report (May 28, 2006) in Steelguru on that. (See also this New Indian Express report)

Orissa government has decided to prepare a master plan for Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district. South Africa based Lea Associates will prepare the master plan in collaboration with School of Planning and Architect, New Delhi and the Centre for Environment and Planning. The master plan will be completed by July. Kalinga Nagar Industrial Area will be developed for a population of over 10 lakh keeping an eye on 2025 and will be extended to 177 square kilometers. As per the draft, the KNIA will be extended to 134 villages. So far 112 villages have been included in the industrial area. About 1 million hectare land will be acquired by the Government in a phased manner for the development of the area. According to the draft plan, 68 square kilometer out of the total area will be reserved for town planning. About 89 square kilometer will be earmarked for industrial units while 20 square kilometer will be reserved for development of different infrastructure including bus stand, hotels, schools and hospital. Decision has also been taken to set up Kalinga Nagar Development Authority.

Following are excerpts from a Sambada report.

The Hindu reports that environmental clearance has been granted to POSCO steel plant. POSCO has earmarked 1,525 crores for environmental pollution control as per the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) as well as the state government conditions. Excerpts:

“The Ministry of Environment and Forests has given the environmental clearance for Posco’s mega steel project at Kujang near Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa,” highly-placed official sources said.The Korean steel giant had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Orissa government in June 2005 pledging an investment of Rs 52,000 crore for setting up the plant.

“The project authorities shall utilise Rs 1,525 crore earmarked for environmental pollution control measures judiciously to implement the conditions stipulated by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) as well as the state government. The funds so provided shall not be diverted for any other purpose,” a source quoted the Environment and Forests Ministry as saying, while granting clearance.

The clearance has been granted to the world’s third largest steel manufacturer for installing furnaces using FINEX technology only and on the condition that gaseous emissions from its various units should strictly conform to load/mass based standards notified by the government.

Earlier in April, the MOEF had granted its approval under Coastal Regulation Zone to the Korean steel giant’s proposal to set up a captive port at Jatadhari at a cost of Rs 17,113 crore.”

Business standard reports that some of the betel cultivators have accepted POSCO’s compensation for these Betel farms.

Also, It must be noted, that these Betel cultivation was being done in Govt. enroached land. Currently out of 4004 acres required by POSCO, 3567 acres is Govt. land and 438 acres is pvt. land.

Excerpts:

In a major breakthrough in the imbroglio over land acquisition for Posco’s 12-million-tonne steel project near Paradip in Orissa, betel cultivators at Nuagaon village, within the project site, have dismantled their vineyards in lieu of compensation.

According to sources, four betel farm owners have accepted compensation to the tune of Rs 4.8 lakh, while 20 more who had surrendered their claim on betel vineyards are expected to be paid around Rs 15 lakh in a couple of days.

The farmers are being paid according to the rate fixed by the state government. Company sources said they had received about 200 applications from local farmers for payment of compensation for the surrender of their claim.

These were being verified and would be cleared in a phased manner, they added.

It may be noted that betel leaves are mostly cultivated over encroached government land in the proposed Posco plant area. There are about 1,600 betel farms in Nuagaon alone.

Posco required for its plant 4004 acres of land in three grampanchayats, namely Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Gada Kujanga. Of this, 3567 acres is government land and 437 acres is private land. Most of the government land, however, is encroached upon by betel cultivators.

It may be noted that about 3,000 people working at the betel farms in Gadakujanga, Dhinkia and Nuagaon are among the most vocal opponents of the project as they fear loss of employment.

They have become soft targets for anti-Posco agitators. Keeping this in mind, the state government is framing a separate package for these workers, in addition to the existing rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) policy formulated last year.

According to state Chief Secretary Ajit Tripathy, the stalemate over land acquisition is gradually giving way and people in the site area are coming out in support of the project.