Govt clears Rs 100,000 cr investment in SEZs

Zones to come up on 40,000 hectares; 500,000 jobs to be created.

The government today cleared Rs 1 trillion (Rs 100,000 crore) of investment in special economic zones, the largest clearance of India Inc's growth plans in a single day. The investments will convert over 40,000 hectares of the country's land mass into SEZs and create jobs for over 500,000 people.

The Board of Approval, comprising officials from various ministries, cleared 148 of 166 proposals, including those of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, Biocon, Satyam Computers and DLF Universal.

The proposals cleared contained 75 that had already received approval in principle. The board, which met for the first time after the notification of the SEZ rules in February, also set in motion a system of single-window clearance for setting up these SEZs. Notifications for all proposals approved will be issued next week.

At least 18 proposals pertaining to three states "" West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu "" were deferred because of state elections. The board also asked all the information technology SEZs to operationalise their zones within three years in order to enjoy income tax benefits.

Proposals for setting up two power SEZs by Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) at Chandrapur district were deferred. One proposal is for a 1,000 Mw SEZ spread over 1,100 hectares and another for a 150-Mw SEZ spread over 103 hectares. According to the proposal, MIDC will sell power to other SEZs.

Reliance Infrastructure Ltd will be setting up a petrochemical SEZ at Jamnagar spread over 450 acres with an investment of over Rs 20,000 crore. Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation's multi-product SEZ over 4,370 acres, with an estimated investment of over Rs 4,000 crore, was also approved.

Two proposals of the Adani group "" the Mundra SEZ of Gujarat Adani Port Ltd spread over 5,000 acres and Adani Chemicals' SEZ, also in Gujarat, spread over 7,000 acres with an estimated investment of over Rs 12,000 crore "" were also cleared.

Biocon's proposal for a bio-technology SEZ in Bangalore spread over 90 acres with an investment of around Rs 200 crore also got the nod.

Among the IT sector proposals, three by Satyam Computers Services Ltd for SEZs in Thotlakonda in Visakhapatnam, Bahadurpalli in Hyderabad and one in Hyderabad city, were cleared.

A decision on Reliance Industries' Navi Mumbai SEZ proposal pertaining to acquisition of additional 850 hectares of land was deferred till the next meeting because of CIDCO still being in possession of the land.

Some of the cases which received approvals in principle included two proposals by DLF Universal for SEZs spread over 1,000 hectares in Punjab and 8,000 hectares in Haryana. Two proposals by Jubilant Organosys Ltd for SEZs in Gujarat and Mysore were also cleared.