Bhubaneswar, Oct 15 : Ten state government officials held Wednesday by villagers, protesting a proposed steel plant by Arcelor Mittal in Orissa's Keonjhar district, were released Thursday, an official said.

"They were demanding re-location of the project. All the officials were released after I assured the villagers that no project will be allowed in their area without their consent," District Collector Debajani Chakrabarti told IANS.

The villagers had initially detained a land acquisition officer and an official of the company, who had gone to the area for survey work Wednesday afternoon.

While the company official managed to escape after a few hours, the villagers detained nine other government officials who reached the village later to resolve the matter.

Arcelor-Mittal has planned to build a 12 million tonnes per annum steel project in the region, 235 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, with an investment of Rs. 40,000 crore.

Although the company requires about 8,000 acres, the state government has not been able to acquire any land so far.(IANS)