More land grief for SEZs

NEW DELHI/PUNE: Scores of private developers in various stages of implementing their plans to set up special economic zones (SEZs) on land acquired by state governments will have to either purchase land afresh or abandon their plans. All SEZ proposals for which states acquired or allotted land after February 10, 2006, when the SEZ Act was notified, will have to be redone, according to official sources.

This follows Thursday’s decision of the empowered group of ministers (eGoM) to bar forceful acquisition of land for SEZs, even if these have been already given in-principle approval by the board of approval (BoA). Many developers were hoping to piggyback on the governments’ ability to acquire land forcefully.

The eGoM decision is that the developer—government or private—will purchase the land on its own from willing sellers. A senior commerce ministry official told ET that the new policy will apply to all 162 cases for which in-principle approval has been given, in addition to new proposals. He added that the 234 SEZs that have received formal approvals would not have a problem in receiving the final notification as “the land was bought or acquired prior to the notification of the Act”.

However, this assumption may be different from ground realities. According to sources, in at least two dozen formally-approved SEZs—including Reliance’s proposed multi-product SEZ near Garhi Harsaru in Gurgaon district—land acquisition took place after the SEZ Act was notified.