Agra's SEZ for leather cleared

After almost a year of deliberations, the Union ministry for commerce has given its approval for the setting up of a special economic zone for leather and leather products in Agra.

To be established on the Agra-Delhi national highway on at least 100 hectares, the project will be designed and developed by Parshavnath Developers Ltd, for which the company has been given a year to submit its detailed project report (DPR).

This had started as a project for establishing a multi-product special economic zone in Agra.

However, the industrial development project, visualised by the National Chamber of Commerce, UP, faced a setback with the notification issued recently by the central government, which has ruled out the possibility of setting up a multi-product SEZ in Agra due to the unavailability of at least 1,000 hectares of vacant non-agricultural, industrial land near the town.

Talking to Business Standard, Anil Verma, president, NCIC, UP, said the country's 60-70 per cent of footwear export was from the small industrial units of Agra and the footwear industry of this town had been asking for a separate industrial area for the leather industry since a long time.

Recently, he said the chamber had raised this issue before the Union minister for state for commerce & industry, Jairam Ramesh, during his Agra visit and the minister had assured that action would be taken soon.

Later, the Omaxe group had given a proposal to develop the multi-product SEZ in Agra but the maximum industrial land that was available in Agra was barely over 500 hectares and that was not found sufficient.

He said the UP State Industrial Development Corporation could not make land available in the Export Promotion Industrial Park (EPIP) and it was unable to source any another piece of land for the SEZ.

As a result, he said the industrialists had to settle for an SEZ for only leather and leather products.

He said the representatives of Parshavnath Developers Ltd were in contact with the chamber and had requested its assistance in sourcing a suitable plot of land for the project.