Nod to Emaar's $1.5 bn SEZ plan

Formal clearance to 23 proposals, 18 plans get in-principle nod.

In a first big-ticket foreign investment in special economic zones, the government today approved in principle the Dubai-based real estate major Emaar Group's plan for setting up 10 SEZs in Haryana at an estimated investment of $1.5 billion.

These include three multi-product SEZs, one for gems and jewellery, one for auto components and five for information technology.

In addition, the government formally cleared 23 proposals, including Sem India's Fab City project, Infosys Technologies' proposal for an IT project and Cadila's proposal for a pharma project.

Suzlon's proposal to set up a non-conventional energy windmill SEZ at Mangalore, spread over 486 hectares, was part of the 18 proposals given in-principle clearance.

Emaar officials said the company was earlier looking at Hyderabad, Bangalore and Maharashtra for the project.

"The board of approval (an inter-ministerial body for SEZ proposals) has given only approval in principle as the company is yet to submit details regarding land for the project," an official said. The company, however, has informed the board that most of the land is private, he added.

The clearance has come at a time when several SEZ projects in Haryana are facing rough weather. A proposed IT SEZ of DLF had to be put on hold as land for the project was in a no-construction zone. An agreement for Reliance's multi-product SEZ had been delayed.

Another proposal which received in-principle clearance today is an IT SEZ at Bangalore being set up by TCS and Singapore-based Ascendas.

With the board of approval clearing these 23 projects, an additional 2,300 hectares would be designated as SEZs, which would attract investment of around Rs 15,000 crore. The board considered a total of 111 proposals of which around 70 were deferred.

Some of the other SEZs which received formal approval today include Essar's chemical SEZ at Hazira, to be spread over 270 hectares, Hetro Drugs proposal to set up a pharma SEZ at Vishakapatnam spread over 100 hectares and CMC's proposal for an IT SEZ at Hyderabad, spread over 20 hectares.

Two proposals of the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation for setting up a 195-hectare textiles SEZ at Sholapur in Maharashtra and another 208-hectare textile SEZ in the state were also cleared.

The State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu had proposed a hardware SEZ spread over 120 hectares. This was also cleared. Officials said two states "" Uttaranchal and Chhattisgarh made their debut into SEZs with the board clearing SEZs for IT and auto components, respectively.

Besides these, the board cleared six old cases which had been held up on account of land size. These include Delhi Metro Corporation's proposal for setting up an IT SEZ spread over 15 acres above one of its metro stations and a consortium of shoe manufacturers' footwear SEZ, to be set up over 150 acres.