The Board of Approvals (BoA) for special economic zones, which is under the Commerce Ministry, will meet on May 9 to take up 19 proposals for consideration. This would be the first meeting of the board after the freeze on fresh proposals and notifications was lifted by an empowered group of ministers (eGoM) on April 5.According to Commerce Ministry officials, the proposals, which would be taken up in the meeting are the ones which already have land in their possession. The developers of these zones have procured the land directly form the owners of the land. The GoM had banned acquisition of land by state governments or its agencies for private zones.As many as 54 zones will be up for notification by the Commerce Ministry once the minutes of the meeting of the empowered group of ministers is signed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who heads the group. The process got delayed as Mukherjee met with an accident on Sunday and was rushed to Delhi for treatment. The rest 28 zones are also in an advanced stage of the notification process.Commerce Ministry officials also said that the proposal of Sri Lankan company MAS Holdings to set up a textile SEZ in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh is likely to get the formal approval in the BoA meeting. The next step for a formally approved zone is to initiate the notification process, which involves getting five key clearances from various government departments.The company has already procured 7,000 acres of land and will invest $ 700 million in the zone. The zone is likely to create 31,000 jobs inside the zone and additional 40,000 jobs out side.
