Indian government okays 24 more special economic zones

Tata, Reliance and Wipro SEZs among new approvals by government.

7 June, 2007: The Government of India has approved 24 special economic zones (SEZs) to be set up in the country.

The government’s decision comes after a two-month freeze on setting up special economic zones following protests by farmers and landowners.

Another nine SEZs have been approved pending scrutiny by the state governments concerned, while 13 applications have been deferred, the Commerce Ministry said in a statement.

Among the projects given green signal include Reliance Industries’ proposed SEZs in Haryana and Maharashtra.

The proposed special economic zone of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance group in Haryana was to be spread over 10,000 hectares. While the Empowered Group of Ministers has capped the maximum size of a zone at 5,000 hectares, the proposal from Reliance cleared by the Board of Approvals (BoA), the single-window clearing agency for SEZs, envisages a multi-services zone that will be spread over 440 hectares.

The Board of Approvals okayed, in principle, Reliance’s port-based project in SEZ-Rewas ports in Raigad, Maharashtra. A decision on Reliance’s Navi Mumbai SEZ was deferred last week because of concerns expressed by the revenue department and JNPT. The proposed Maha Mumbai SEZ has been held up on account of obstacles in land acquisition.

Reliance’s SEZ in Maharashtra, located in the Delhi-Mumbai corridor, will have about 200 high-speed freight trains linking trade zones with industrial complexes and ports.

The Tata group, India’s biggest industrial conglomerate, got an SEZ approved in Orissa.

The list also included Wipro’s IT and IT-enabled services SEZ in Hyderabad, which would be spread over 40 hectares. GMR’s airport-based, multi-product zone (101 hectares) and Indiabulls Industrial Infrastructure Limited’s 1,023-hectare zone in Nashik also got formal approval.

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition government at the Centre, led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has approved 111 special economic zones in the last two years.

Special economic zones, its advocates argue, will help provide employment and fetch huge foreign investment. They have always invited resistance from the country’s rural communities whose main occupation is farming.