Mahindra Gesco plans four more SEZs

While three SEZs will be for IT and apparel, one will be for food processing units.

Close on the heels of signing a memorandum of understanding with the Maharashtra government for the 3,000 acre multi-product Pune special economic zone (SEZ), Mahindra Gesco, the realty arm of the Mahindra group, is planning to launch four more SEZs across the country. The company has already set up SEZs in Chennai and Jaipur.

Three of these will be product specific SEZs, while the fourth will be a multi-product SEZ located in eastern India.

The product specific SEZs will be for information technology and apparel industries and are expected to come up by mid-2007. Planning for the fourth one, for the food processing industry, is still in a nascent stage, said Arun Nanda, the company's vice-chairman.

"We are looking at different locations for these SEZs. Currently, we are evaluating sites in Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal for the multi-product SEZ. For the apparel SEZ, we are considering two sites, one in the Delhi area and another in the Bangalore-Tirupur belt. The IT SEZ is likely to come up in a non-metro location," Nanda said.

Both these SEZs will be much smaller, of around 250 acres each and will be joint ventures with the respective state governments.

On their existing SEZs, Nanda said, "The Jaipur SEZ is likely to take off first as the government had the complete land parcel. We hope to get our first tenants in by end of the year. At Chennai, we are acquiring more land and will expand the area from the current 1,400 acres to 3,000 acres."