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Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has announced that its group company Reliance Haryana SEZ Limited (RHSL) has returned 1,383.68 acres of land in Gurgaon acquired from Haryana State Industrial & Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) for setting up special economic zones (SEZs) owing to revision of strategic priorities.
RHSL is a joint venture between Reliance Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of RIL, and HSIIDC, a Haryana government-owned company. The venture was established for development of SEZs, model economic townships (MET) and other infrastructure facilities in Haryana. HSIIDC has also exited the joint venture and the project.
The model economic township project will continue to be developed in the Industrial Model Township framework on the directly-purchased land. The development work has started on 290 acres of land as an 'industrial colony'. Companies such as Panasonic and Denso have established their manufacturing units in the MET Project. A memorandum of understanding was entered into on December 12, 2005 with HSIIDC for development of a large multi-product SEZ in Gurgaon and Jhajjar districts of Haryana.
In 2007, HSIIDC transferred 1,383 acres of land to RHSL for development of the SEZ. On July 14, 2010, the Haryana government approved the development of SEZ over the land transferred by HSIIDC in Gurgaon and the development of MET. But in March 2011, the Centre withdrew the fiscal concessions for the SEZs.
"Consequently, in January 2012, RHSL offered to return the 1,383 acres as SEZs became unviable with the withdrawal of fiscal incentives. On February 7, 2014, the Haryana Cabinet approved the return of the land to HSIIDC at a price much lower than the price at which it was transferred to it. It also approved the exit of HSIIDC from the project," RIL said in a statement on Saturday.
