BHUBANESWAR - The Orissa government, which Thursday reviewed the progress of 14 greenfield projects underway in the state, said most of the companies setting up these projects have not completed land acquisition.

“Acquiring land is the biggest problem before these mega projects. Most of the companies that set up these projects have started acquiring land. We are trying to expedite the acquisition process,” Steel and Mines Minister Raghunath Mohanty said after the meeting.

Top government officials and representatives of the companies attended the meeting.

These 14 companies have a combined land requirement of 45,607 acres of which less than one-third — 14,131.9 acres — have been acquired.

The combined value of these proposals is Rs.2 trillion (nearly $40 billion) and the government claims that Rs.21,031.71 crore (nearly $520 million) have been invested so far.

Among the top investors, Posco India has acquired only 506.74 acres. It requires 6,000 acres to set up its proposed $12-billion steel plant.

Tata Steel, which needs 3,500 acres, has acquired 3,040 acres, while Essar Steel has acquired only 135 acres of the 2,500 acres allotted to it.

Arcellor Mittal, which has proposed to set up a 12-million tones per annum steel plant in the state, is yet to start acquiring land.

“We have started reviewing these projects. We are trying to remove the bottlenecks in the implementation. We will periodically review the progress,” Mohanty said.

However, he added that companies like Jindal Steel and Power, Jindal India Thermal Power, Bhushan Power and Steel and have made significant progress in land acquisition and some companies have gone to the production phase.