36 UP SEZs await Central govt nod

Noida is set to emerge as a special economic zone hub once applications pending with the Union government are finalised. UP received 43 applications for establishing SEZs.

Of these 39 are from the private sector and four from the public sector, i.e. the UP State Industrial development Corporation. Twenty-one of these have been recommended by the state. Five more are likely to get recommendation.

Seven have been approved by the Union government. These are all proposed to be located in the Greater Noida Noida region. Six of them are for Information Technology. The companies are-HCL, Wipro, OSE, See-View developers, NIIT and Ansal. The Moser Bear proposal is for Non conventional energy.

Another 13 have been granted in-principle clearance, which means that they are yet to meet the requirements including land.

There are two of MGF Developers, one from Free Trade Economic Zone Ltd; Xanza-an IT company has applied for Noida; Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts for Greater Noida, Tosha Infotech for Greater Noida. Reliance energy project which was to be proposed to come up as an SEZ needs more land.

Parsvanath has applied for two SEZs, one for Moradabad for handicrafts and another in Agra.

Overseas India Ltd has applied for one SEZ each for dyes and textiles, both proposed to be located at Chhatta in Mathura. Lastly, one proposal is from Aligarh Industrial Parks, a company promoted by Lockmakers, for an SEZ for locks.

UPSIDC has proposed to establish four project-specific SEZs, three for Kanpur and one for Bhadoi-Varanasi. The last one is for carpets and the earlier three are for garments, hosiery and leather. Another leather-based SEZ for Kanpur has been proposed by Dolphin Developers.

Thus with so many of the proposed projects stalled due to indecision UP is impatiently waiting for the clearance of its special economic zones proposals as it has delayed its plans by many years.

It was the first state which had enacted an SEZ law and had even identified the areas where the government agencies were to establish the SEZs. But that was before 2003.

Once the Centre changed its guidelines, the Act had to be re-enacted, thus delaying the establishment of SEZs.

Again UP is suffering because of the delay in taking a decision by the union government. At least three meetings scheduled to take decision, have been postponed.

SIDC, which has now chosen to develop proposed ones on its own, instead of through a co-promoter from the private sector, has already completed one SEZ at Moradabad. SIDC MD Chanchal Tewari told Business Standard that we are looking to expand it. SIDC has none of the land problems which many others are facing.

The Kanpur land was acquired way back in 2000 while the three proposed SEZ will require 750 acres, the SIDC has 1,100 acre already acquired. Similarly in Varanasi-Bhadoi it had acquired 560 acres in 2002-03.

"We do not need any fresh acquisition," says Tewari. However, uneven development of industry will be intensified as most of the SEZ's are coming up in the western part of the state, with only one in the East and four in the central part of the state.

Nodia-greater Noida will of course have the lions share, with Kanpur coming a distant second.