SEZ at Pithampur to be inaugurated on Sunday

INDORE: The country''s first Special Economic Zone, which will exclusively house export oriented units, will be inaugurated at Pithampur, near here on Sunday by Madhya Pradesh chief minister, Digvijay Singh.
Talking to reporters here on Saturday, state industries minister, Narendra Nahata said SEZ which will be spread on 1,038 hectares of land is the first of its kind in the country with an estimated expenditure of Rs 1,000 crore only on infrastructure development.
Conceptualised by central government, SEZ in Pithampur is among the 13 SEZ''s approved by the centre and is the first to start its operations in the shortest possible time, he said.
Initially, the land will be allotted in the SEZ from the developed 200 acres of area, which was developed earlier under the export promotion industrial park scheme and after the introduction of SEZ the scheme was incorporated in it, state industries development corporation''s managing director, S R Mohanty said.
The chief minister will also launch a special website of SEZ on the occasion, he said adding, the SEZ is expected to provide employment to nearly 60,000 persons when it becomes fully operational.
Apart from world class basic infrastructure facilities the units will be allowed to set up captive power plants for their use, rail connectivity, inland container depot, single-point clearance system in the areas of pollution clearance, labour laws and excise among others.
The centre will appoint a special development commissioner for the SEZ and he will be overall head of all the facilities in the zone, Mohanty added.