India has expressed its concerns over South Korean steelmaker Posco's much-delayed plans in starting work on a steel plant, commerce minister Anand Sharma said Monday.

 

In 2005, Posco proposed to build a steel plant in the eastern state of Orissa at a total cost of $12 billion, which would have been India's largest foreign direct investment to date. But the steelmaker has been unable to get all the land needed to start work on the project due to pending environmental license clearances and protests by some local landowners, and hasn't even started constructing the first phase of its project--a 4-million-tons-a-year plant.

 

"We are concerned about the delays and will be conducting a review. The Prime Minister himself is monitoring the issue," Mr. Sharma told South Korea's minister of knowledge economy Sukwoo Hong, according to a statement by the Press Information Bureau of India.

 

Apart from the Orissa project, a proposed joint-venture between state-run Steel Authority of India Ltd and Posco to build another steel plant is also in limbo due to differences between the companies on shareholding patterns.