Bank of India offers Rs 200cr loan to Kakinada SEZ

The Bank of India has come forward to give a financial assistance of Rs 200 crore to the Kakinada Special Economic Zone Limited (KSEZ) for acquisition of 10,000 acres of land.

With the clearing of legal hurdles, KSEZ launched phase-I operation in Kakinada and started purchasing lands from farmers with the cooperation of the government recently.

"The Bank of India will make spot payments to farmers who sell their lands for setting up of the SEZ,'' said Bank of India zonal manager MN Chary. He said a special office of the bank had been opened on the KSEZ premises at Kakinada to ensure speedy payment process.

The land acquisition process has been delayed due to the unwillingness of farmers to sell their lands for fear of losing their livelihood. Some of the farmers even approached the High Court, but with unfavourable signals coming from legal circles and the government taking a firm stand on land acquisition, about 2,000 farmers have agreed to sell their lands to KSEZ, which is offering Rs 3 lakh per acre to them.

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited, Kakinada Sea Ports Limited (KSPL) and the Andhra Pradesh government are the members of the KSEZ consortium. ONGC alone needs 2,500 acres of land for its proposed refinery at a cost of Rs 6,500 crore in the Kakinada rural mandal.

Many industrialists are making efforts to establish industries like bio-diesel, aluminum, fashion designing, ceramics and others and are awaiting permission from KSEZ and the state government.

US firm to prepare master plan for Kakinada SEZ

The Kakinada Special Economic Zone (KSEZ) has confirmed the bid of TSG, a consulting firm, for preparing a master plan for setting up of an SEZ near here.

KSEZ received 12 bids of which it shortlisted two "� TSG of US and Jurong of Singapore. TSG has emerged as the winner of the bid. The bids were shortlisted by Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (ILFS) .

The Services Group (TSG) has prepared master plans for nearly 120 prominent organisation including the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. TSG has to submit its master plan within 12 weeks of taking consent from KSEZ.

KSEZ director K V Rao said a KSEZ team would meet the Union ministry of commerce in New Delhi on April 17, 2006, to submit a detailed report of the land acquisition, infrastructure and master plan proposals.

He expressed the hope that the proposed KSEZ would attract as much as Rs 35,000 crore to Rs 40,000 crore worth of industries.