Ambanis' zones among 36 SEZs cleared

NEW DELHI: A total of 36 special economic zones (SEZs) were given a formal go-ahead by the government on Friday, including three in Navi Mumbai promoted by Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and an 18-hectare IT SEZ at Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City in Maharashtra promoted by Anil Ambani group’s Reliance Infocomm.

The board of approvals (BoA) also accorded in-principle approvals to nine SEZ proposals which are yet to acquire land. BoA chairman GK Pillai informed all members that the state governments have been informed that that they could undertake acquisition of land for SEZs only when “100% of owners” give their consent. If any proposal for compulsorily acquired land comes up, the same would not be notified as SEZ.

The board has approved an electronic hardware SEZ promoted by Taiwanese company Foxconn in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu. Foxconn, which already has an operational SEZ in the state, is a hardware supplier for companies like Nokia and Motorola. The SEZ approved on Friday, spread over 11 hectares, will eventually be expanded to 136 hectares taking Foxconn’s total investment in India up to $1.4 billion.

While the fate of the 1,250-hectare multi-product SEZ in Navi Mumbai promoted by Mukesh Ambani remains uncertain due to contiguity factors, formal approval was given to three adjoining sector-specific SEZs covering an area of 345 hectares. These include a bio-technology SEZ spread over 63.74 hectares, a light-engineering SEZ spread over 179 hectares and a pharmaceutical SEZ covering 103.25 hectares.

The three sector-specific SEZs were originally part of the multi-product SEZ. Sources said that since contiguity norms were being breached, the promoters were advised by the commerce ministry to carve out three sector-specific SEZs from the multi-product SEZ.

The proposal for the Navi Mumbai multi-product SEZ, which had seen objections from the revenue department on a number of issues including disruption of human settlements falling within the zone, will be taken up at the next meeting of the BoA on July 12.

The state government, which was asked to respond to queries raised by the revenue department, has given a no-objection certificate to the project. The BoA approved a 235-hectare SEZ in the textiles sector promoted by Sri Lanka-based multinational MAS Fabric Park in Andhra Pradesh. The company has plans of investing $700 million in the zone and create a total of 30,000 jobs.

A 100-hectare aviation zone by GMR Hyderabad International Airport in Andhra Pradesh was given formal approval by the BoA. Approval was also given to two SEZs in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, the first for the Union Territory. A proposal by Ramky Infrastructure to set up a 1,012-hectare multi-product SEZ in West Bengal was given an in-principle clearance.

“This is the first multi-product SEZ that has been cleared for West Bengal. Now barring Bihar and the North-East, SEZs have been approved in all states. Bihar and the Northeast have been left out as no application has been received from those states,” Mr Pillai said.

Of the seven cases deferred, two proposals for multi-product SEZs came from Skill Infrastructure. The clearance could not be given as they did not meet the net-worth requirement. A total of 339 SEZs have received formal approval so far of which 126 have been notified. In all, Rs 35,145 crore has been invested in these zones which have created 32,578 direct jobs.