In a major development today, Union Environment Minister M Veerappa Moily has confirmed that he has given the green signal to POSCO’s Rs 52,000 crore steel project in Jagatsinghpur district in Odisha, which ended the eight-year wait for the steel major.

The environment approval for the POSCO project came a week ahead of South Korean President Park Geun Hye’s visit to India. The Odisha government has already completed the land acquisition for this mega project, which will have an annual production capacity of 12 million tonnes.

In 2012, the POSCO project had run into trouble when Jairam Ramesh was the Environment Minister. The final environment approval, which was given to the steel giant in 2011, was suspended in 2012, citing some genuine concerns related to environment.