36 SEZs granted Formal approval, in principle approval to 9

The Board of Approval (BOA) of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) met here today to consider proposals for setting up of Special Economic Zones and also approve other miscellaneous requests pertaining to SEZs. In this meeting, 53 applications for setting up SEZs were considered and 36 Formal approvals and 9 In-principle approvals were granted.

Prominent among the Formal approvals are: Electronic Hardware SEZ by Foxconn India Developers Private Limited in Tamil Nadu; Aviation Sector SEZ by GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited in Andhra Pradesh; One IT/ITES SEZ and one Gem and Jewellery SEZ by Omnibus Industrial Development Corporation of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli; Three SEZs for Biotechnology, Light Engineering and Pharmaceuticals by Navi Mumbai SEZ Private Limited in Maharashtra; IT/ITES SEZ by Reliance Infocom Infrastructure Private Limited in Maharashtra and six IT/ITES SEZs by Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu in various Districts of Tamil Nadu and MAS Fabrics Textile SEZ in Andhra Pradesh which is being developed with 100% FDI.

Prominent In principle approvals granted are : Electronics and Electrical SEZ, Engineering Equipment & Components SEZ and a Multi Product SEZ by TIDCO in Tamil Nadu; Multi product SEZ by DLF Limited in Rajasthan; Aerospace related industries SEZ by KIADB in Karnataka.

With this set of approvals, the total number of SEZs granted formal approval is 339 i.e. 339 SEZs are there with land and of these 126 have so far been notified. Investment of 35145 Crores has taken place so far and current employment in new SEZs is about 33000 persons. It is expected that by end of the year additional employment in the new SEZs would cross 100,000.

The Chairman of BOA Shri G.K.Pillai, apprised the Members of the Board that the Central Government has issued certain instructions with regard to approval of SEZs and the land acquisition for SEZs and the Chief Secretaries of all the State Governments have been informed that the State Governments would undertake acquisition of land for SEZs only when 100% of the owners give consent. The State Government representatives were informed that if any proposal for compulsorily acquired land comes up, the same would not be notified as SEZ. It was also advised that to the extent possible, double crop and multiple crop lands should not be acquired.

Source : Press Information Bureau

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