Tata SEZ may get go-ahead tomorrow

NEW DELHI: Tata’s proposed multi-product special economic zone (SEZ) in Gopalpur is finally set to get the green signal from the government. The proposal, which was deferred last year due to certain security concerns raised by the home ministry, was then delayed by the overall freeze on new projects imposed by the government in January this year.

The project will be now taken up for formal clearance by the board of approval (BoA) for SEZs at its meeting on Thursday. Other projects to be considered by the BoA include Dubai-based construction company ETA’s IT technopark SEZ in Chennai and Genpact’s IT SEZ in Hyderabad.

The Gopalpur project, despite meeting all required application guidelines and having land in possession, was put on hold in September last year due to its precarious location in the vicinity of a missile training academy.
The home ministry wanted to be sure that the SEZ, to be spread over 1,1173 hectares, would not pose a security threat to the country and asked for time to carry out its checks.

When the home ministry gave its all-clear signal late last year, the project still couldn’t take-off as the empowered group of ministers on SEZ put a freeze on all clearances on January 22 following violent protests against forcible land acquisition by states.

The BoA meet on May 31, will consider a total of 40 proposals of which eight are new cases while 32 projects are deferred cases from earlier meetings. Interestingly, 29 of the proposals are already in possession of land and are, therefore, unlikely to face any opposition from locals at the implementation stage.

There are four new proposals of the Uttar Pradesh Industrial Development Corporation for development of sector specific SEZs in leather, textiles, engineering goods and carpets & handicrafts in Kanpur and Badoi.

The land for all the four projects are in possession of UPIDC. It remains to be seen how the new state government under Mayawati responds to these projects. It may be recalled that the Mayawati government cautioned the Centre that the Noida SEZ by Reliance could be flouting contiguity norms.