The government has cancelled its earlier permission for the Adani Group's Special Economic Zone (SEZ) over 1,840 hectares (ha) in Mundra (Gujarat), for violation of three rules.
Adani has a larger SEZ project in the same region and this is not affected by the government decision.
Sources in the Union ministry of commerce and industry said Adani Ports and SEZ's project in question did not conform to the contiguity norms. And, breached a rule requiring the SEZ site to be vacant before approval was sought for the tax-free zone. Besides, the site was land-locked.
An official said, "They had violated these three norms. Because of this, we have denotified their SEZ."
Adani can, however, approach the Board of Approval once the anomalies are addressed and seek fresh permission for commencing work on the project. A spokesperson at Adani said, "The company has 6,473 ha of notified multi product Special Economic Zone, which has no relation with the aforesaid 1,840 ha multi product SEZ. We had sought clearance for this additional land measuring 1,840 ha for expansion in future. The clearance was turned down as the authorities felt the proposed area lacked contiguity. We will seek clearance for this additional 1,840 ha. in due course.”
Adding: “The development and operations of the Port and related infrastructure and the existing 6,473 ha SEZ at Mundra are normal and not impacted by this.”
The had planned to set up the country's largest SEZ, spread over nearly 6,500 ha. An empowered group of ministers (EGoM) had permitted the merger of "contiguous zones" in 2009. The promoters had wanted to merge three land tracts into the notified zone on the grounds that these were also "contiguous".
However, ministry sources said the government would not allow indefinite merger of zones as the EGoM had originally capped the maximum area at 5,000 ha.
