BoA meeting today to take up 46 SEZ applications

NEW DELHI: Having cleared over 200 special economic zone (SEZ) proposals, the Board of Approval (BoA) will on Friday take up 46 fresh cases that include those of RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani group’s Reliance Infocom, DLF and GMR Hyderabad International Airport.

IT, ITeS and biotechnology sectors dominate the list of projects awaiting the Centre’s nod, with as many as 23 proposals among these sectors lined up for Friday’s meeting. Most of these are proposed to be set up in the states of Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Karnataka.

While the Navi Mumbai SEZ of Mukesh Ambani and his close aide Anand Jain is awaiting the government’s green signal, three other projects of the same promoters proposed to be set up in adjoining areas will be considered by the BoA, headed by commerce secretary GK Pillai.

The three proposals are product-specific zones — biotechnology, light engineering and pharmaceuticals — and would cover an area of 346 hectare in Navi Mumbai. Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infocom Infrastructure’s IT SEZ at Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City in Maharashtra has also been lined up.

Of the 46 proposals, 10 do not have land in possession while four are cases that have been carried over from earlier meetings.

Other zones in the list include Uttam Galva Group’s 100 hectare integrated steel SEZ at Maharashtra, DLF’s 2,024 hectares multi-product zone in Rajasthan, SKIL Infrastructure’s 5,000 hectare multi-product zone in Karnataka and a 300-hectare project in Goa.

Seven IT and ITeS zones of Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu, planned to be spread over 405 hectare area and GMR Hyderabad International Airport’s aviation zone in Andhra Pradesh on 100 hectare would also be considered
on Friday.