GoM may clear way for SEZs with land

CHENNAI: The empowered group of ministers (GoM) is scheduled to meet in New Delhi next week to take a fresh look at the total freeze on SEZs. The group, headed by Union minister for external affairs, Pranab Mukherjee, is likely to push for relaxing the norms for giving the go-ahead to SEZs, at least to projects which do not have any problem with land acquisition.

In fact, states like Tamil Nadu, which have succeeded with the SEZ concept, are urging the Centre to accord formal approvals to several pending SEZ projects. These states fear that inordinate delay in granting approvals may drive out potential investments to other emerging markets.

“The committee is set to meet next week to see whether we can relax the norms in according approvals to at least those SEZs which do not have any problem with the acquisition of land,” Dayanidhi Maran, Union minister for IT & communications said here on Friday.

Addressing media on the sidelines of a function to announce a logistics joint venture between Hong Kong’s Kerry Logistics and Chennai’s Reliable Freight Forwarders, he said states like Tamil Nadu have not proposed large SEZs that require around 10,000 acres.

Instead, Tamil Nadu has opted for small and compact SEZs, where land requirement vary between 225 acres and 250 acres. “Some of the potential investors are already looking at alternate markets like Vietnam, following the total freeze on SEZ plans and subsequent delays,” Mr Maran, who is a member of the empowered committee of the group of ministers said.

He said the committee is likely to examine the possibilities of relaxing the norms in certain cases. “In the case of Tamil Nadu, almost all the SEZs have come up on lands held by the state-owned Sipcot or where land was acquired by the companies directly. In these cases, no wet land was acquired,” he said.

According to Mr Maran, the proposals affected by the freeze include both IT and manufacturing economic zones. “There are at least 20 such proposals, where in-principle approvals have been given. We will end up as losers, if these projects cannot take off on time, as investors have a time schedule,” he said.