Coastal economic zones face land hurdle

CEZs are spatial-economic regions, which could extend along 300-500 km of coastline

The Centre’s ambitious plan of setting up coastal economic zones (CEZ) has hit a sandbank. Non-availability of contiguous land parcels with the states along with huge acquisition and subsequent compensation costs are delaying the execution of the project, according to sources.
 
In July 2016, under the Sagarmala programme, the government had announced setting up 14 CEZs, to be aligned to relevant ports in the maritime states and house coastal economic units for setting up manufacturing facilities.
 
The CEZs will host big manufacturing and export-oriented units. These would include labour-intensive industries such as clothing, footwear, electronics as well as