Proposals for 46 SEZs to be taken up today

Having cleared over 200 special economic zone (SEZ) proposals, the Board of Approval (BoA) will tomorrow take up 46 fresh cases that include those of RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani group's Reliance Infocom, DLF Ltd and GMR Hyderabad International Airport.

IT, ITeS and biotechnology sectors dominate the list of projects awaiting the Centre's nod, with as many as 23 proposals among these sectors lined up for tomorrow's meeting. Most of these are proposed to be set up in Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Karnataka.

While the Navi Mumbai SEZ, proposed by Mukesh Ambani and his close aide Anand Jain, is awaiting the government's green signal, three other projects of the same promoters proposed to be set up in adjoining areas will be considered by the BoA, headed by Commerce Secretary GK Pillai.

The three proposals are product-specific zones""biotechnology, light engineering and pharmaceuticals""and will cover an area of 346 hectare in Navi Mumbai. Anil Ambani's Reliance Infocom Infrastructure's IT SEZ at Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City in Maharashtra has also been lined up.

Of the 46 proposals, 10 do not have land in possession while four are cases that have been carried over from earlier meetings.

Other zones in the list include Uttam Galva Group's 100 hectare integrated steel SEZ at Maharashtra, DLF Ltd's 2,024 hectare multi-product zone in Rajasthan, SKIL Infrastructure Ltd's 5,000 hectare multi-product zone in Karnataka and a 300 hectare project in Goa.

Seven IT and ITeS zones of the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu, planned to be spread over 405 hectares and GMR Hyderabad International Airport's aviation zone in Andhra Pradesh on 100 hectares would also be considered tomorrow.