Meanwhile, a consensus has been reached among the two parties over swapping of iron ore within or outside the country The state government will sign a tripartite agreement with Posco and its Indian subsidiary Posco-India in late October or first week of November this year, which will replace the lapsed memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with the company in June 2005. Both the parties have agreed on all the conditions for setting up of the steel plant near Paradip, said Rajnikant Singh, state minister for steel and mines. "All the modalities have been completed. Since there is puja holidays ahead, I believe the agreement will be signed in late October or in the first week of November," he said. Earlier this week, the South Korean ambassador had said that foundation stone for the steel plant would be laid in January, 2014, coinciding with the visit of the President of South Korea. Meanwhile, a consensus has been reached among the two parties over swapping of iron ore within or outside the country. It has been decided that Posco will not seek to swap the high alumina content iron ore at all, sources said. The company has also agreed to set up downstream industries and adhere to the state policy of giving maximum priority to local population while providing jobs. The signing of the tripartite agreement became necessary after the original MoU lapsed in 2010, requiring the government to renew the agreement. However, the pitch for renewal of MoU was later queered as the state law department opined that the MoU cannot be renewed after expiry and the state has to sign a tripartite agreement with Posco India and its parent company in Seoul in its place. Accordingly, the steel & mines department and the company authorities had agreed to have an 'instrument of renewal' for a span of five years in June, 2012, but the matter remained in cold storage since then for unknown reasons. In April, this year Posco India CMD, Yong Won Yoon had said, the company is not aware about the delay in signing of the fresh pact as it has agreed to all the conditions of the state government, to be incorporated in the draft, two years back. The government became overactive to clear all the legal and procedural hurdles for the company after the Supreme Court of India in May this year directed the central government to take a decision regarding grant of Khandadhar iron ore mines to Posco after a four year long legal battle. The state government has also completed the land acquisition process for required 2,700 acres to enable the company start first phase work comprising 8 million tonne steel capacity. It recently forwarded the application of Posco to Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) authority to update its clearance received in 2007. However, the project is yet to overcome some hindrances before the start of work as the company is currently fighting a tree cutting case in the National Green Tribunal, which had restrained it to go ahead with construction activities by suspending its environment clearance.