The South Korean steel major Posco, proposing a 12 million tonne greenfield steel plant near Paradip in Orissa, will announce an additional package for the project displaced families after the Supreme Court clears its forest diversion proposal.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case on April 25, 2008.

"Posco will announce an additional package for the families to be displaced after Supreme Court clears the forest diversion proposal," said Priyabrata Patnaik, the nodal officer, Posco India project and the principal secretary, transport and commerce, Orissa government.

He said, the government can take a decision regarding the physical construction of the project after the Supreme Court clears the FDP.

The Union Ministry of Environment and Forest has sent the recommendation of the Central Empowered Committee to the Supreme Court.

At present Posco has about 512 acres of non-encroached non-forest government land in its possession and the clearance for diversion of some 2,900 acre of forest land is before the Supreme Court.

Apart from that, it also requires about 438 acres of private land for which demarcation and socio-economic survey were completed recently.

However, the price for acquiring the private land is yet to be finalised.

The construction work of the proposed steel plant has already been delayed by more than a year due to the opposition from locals and delay in getting the required land.

An equal amount of compensatory aforestation will be taken up in Cuttack, Jajpur and Jagatsinghpur districts, said Patnaik. He, however, did not give the details of the additional package to be announced by Posco.

Meanwhile, Posco on Tursday stated that a decision to start the construction work for the steel project can be taken only after the forest clearance is obtained.

"We need forest clearance for starting the construction work," G W Sung, director, Posco India project, said.

After meeting Patnaik in the state secretariat, Sung said that the Orissa government has been very supportive for last three years.

He added that the company is interested to talk to the Dhinkia people. "We are talking to them and the problem will be solved in a couple of months," he said.

However, he ruled out any change of site of the proposed project, saying that it is the best place for the plant.