Bhubaneswar, Nov 17 (IANS): Union Steel Secretary Rakesh Singh Monday said the government is committed to the $12 billion steel project of Posco India and said the project would come up in the near future.

"The Posco project is going on. Both the government of India and the state government are committed to the Posco project. The land acquisition and other activities are going on though there may be some delay. There have been delays in the past. But we are very keen and confident that the Posco project will come up in the near future," Rakesh Singh told media after reviewing several steel projects coming up in the state.

Responding to a query about granting prospecting licence for Khandadhar mines to Posco, he said: "I am not fully aware about granting of mines. That is a separate ministry. I will go and take it up with my counterpart in mines Ministry."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured the South Korean prime minister that work on the Posco project would be expedited. Both the leaders met at the Korea-India summit, organised on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit, in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has also endorsed the views of the prime minister and hoped that the hurdles for the project would be sorted out.

The union steel secretary also said that the steel projects are facing shortage of ore and added that the government is trying to resolve the issues.

He said the pricing of the raw materials will be taken care of by market forces in the long run. He added that there was no lack of coordination between the ministry of steel and ministry of mines since both the ministries were working under one minister.

Rakesh Singh said the Centre has targeted production of 300 million tonnes of steel by 2025 from the current production of about 100 million tonnes.