Odisha government had first recommended granting of PL to Posco India in 2006 to the government of India Posco India has welcomed the Supreme Court judgement on granting it prospecting licence (PL) for Khandadhar iron ore mines in Sudergarh district of Odisha. “We welcome the judgement of the Supreme Court on the Khandadhar mining case. We believe that this will significantly help to expedite the project. We are happy that it has come at a time when there has been significant progress on the land clearance work for the project”, said Y W Yoon, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Posco India. It may be noted that the Odisha government had first recommended granting of PL to Posco India in 2006 to the government of India. The Union government had returned the recommendation back to the state government in the same year and directed it to conduct hearing of all the applicants and submit the recommendation again. Based on this, the state government concluded hearing of all the applicants over a time spanning around two and half years and after conclusion re-recommended the same in favour of Posco to the Centre in 2009. Thus, as per the procedures under MMDR Act, it was to be reviewed and approved by the Central government. “Now that, the Supreme Court has set aside the judgement of the Odisha High Court, it is hoped that the Central government will expeditiously look into the state’s recommendation leading to a final decision soon”, Yoon said.