Haryana seeks Gurgaon SEZ land back from RIL

CHANDIGARH: The Haryana government today said it is talking with Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries to take back 1,383 acres in Gurgaon as the company has failed to develop the special economic zone over the same.

"Yes, we are in talks with Reliance (with regard to handover of the Gurgaon land to the state government) because it has not been able to set up the SEZ," Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said when asked whether the state government has asked RIL to return the land.

He said the discussions were on to work out terms and conditions with regard to taking back the land.

The Chief Minister took up the issue with Ambani in a meeting in Delhi yesterday.

RIL spokesperson declined to comment on the issue. The company had entered into an agreement with the state government in 2006 to set up SEZ in Jhajjar and Gurgaon by setting up Special Purpose Vehicle Reliance Haryana SEZ.

Reliance Haryana SEZ is a joint venture between Reliance Ventures, a RIL subsidiary, and Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC).

In the joint venture, RIL has a 90 per cent stake, while HSIIDC has 10 per cent sweat equity. 1,383.68 acres owned by HSIIDC was transferred to Reliance Haryana SEZ in 2006.

The company, last year, had sought extension for its in-principle approval for Gurgaon SEZ from the Commerce Ministry till March 2015, but the approval was granted till March 2012.

"The (in-principle approval) extension granted to Reliance is going to expire in March," Hooda said.

The ambitious SEZ project was to originally come up on 10,000 hectares (about 24,710 acres) at an investment of over Rs 25,000 crore, but the size was scaled down to 5,000 hectares (about 12,355 acres) after the government put a cap on land acquisition for such tax free zones.

RIL and the Haryana government had entered into a deal in 2006 for setting up the multi-product SEZ, at that time billed as India's largest and expected to attract about Rs 1,00,000 crore of third-party investments.