The already much-delayed $12 billion steel mill project of South Korean steel group POSCO in India hit yet again another snag, as a newly established government body placed the project on hold pending environmental review processes.

On Friday, the National Green Tribunal of India released a directive instructing India's ministry of environment and forests to organize a "fresh review of the project" before allowing work to progress on the project, The Financial Times reported. The National Green Tribunal was founded in 2011. The new ruling effectively suspends an order issued in 2011 that signaled the start of construction works for the project.

"A close scrutiny ... reveals that a project of this magnitude, particularly in partnership with a foreign country, has been dealt with casually, without there being any comprehensive scientific data regarding the possible environmental impacts," The Financial Times said, quoting the verdict document.

The recent ruling runs contradictory to what Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had told South Korean businessmen. Just last week, in a visit to South Korea, PM Singh promised to the business community that India will "move forward with the Posco project ... I urge Korean industry to have faith in India."

First announced in 2005, the POSCO project was heralded as India's largest foreign direct investment. The billion-worth steel mill plant has been proposed to be constructed in over more than 1,600 hectares of forested land. The giant figure of trees to be downed by the improvement has encountered a number of public protests, not to mention countless regulatory delays.

The National Green Tribunal released the verdict following an appeal by environmental activists that challenged the initial environmental clearance issued in 2007 for the POSCO steel mill project. But the tribunal only released a ruling that suspended the 2011 order that signaled the start of works on the project. Its ruling did not challenge and left the 2007 environmental clearance intact.