Land crunch ails SEZ dreams

70 per cent of projected SEZ land not available with developers.

In the great rush to develop special economic zones, a schism has emerged between the haves and the have-nots "" companies that possess land for the projects and those that don't.

The difference is crucial as projects that do not possess land are not being approved by the board of approvals, an inter-ministerial body that vets and clears SEZ projects nationwide.

As many as 125 projects for over 2,13,023 acres (86,208 hectares, which is more than half the area of the national Capital) were considered at a meeting of the board last month. Of these, 37 projects did not have land amounting to a massive 1,48,290 acres or 70 per cent of the projected land size of these SEZs.

For instance, Mahindra Realty does not have 2,500 acres for its proposed multi-product special economic zone as yet. The Unitech Haryana project has part availability of the 10,000 acres required for its project.

Raheja Haryana SEZ Developers Ltd also does not have the 5,000 acres in the Dharuhera-Rewari belt that it wants for a multi-product zone.

Of the 23 multi-product SEZ projects for which the data is available, only three were in possession of a total of 30,250 acres of land a month ago.

Of this, Reliance Industries accounted for 25,000 acres. Another seven projects had managed to get a portion of the 27,510 acres they sought.

The remaining thirteen projects did not have land totalling 1,35,000 acres available. Of this, Adani Exports Ltd did not have the 75,000 acres of land available at that stage.

The score was slightly better for the 27 sector-specific SEZs considered by the board at the meeting. Only nine did not have land (a total of 2,670 acres) available. While 16 developers have got land in possession (around 7,820 acres), two had only got part possession.

Incidentally, IT and IT-enabled-services specific SEZs score the best in terms of land possession. Only seven of 50 projects did not have any land when the board considered their plan. The land size of these SEZs totals up to over 4,200 acres.