Mumbai:
The center has given approval to 44 more special economic
zones, taking the total applications so far approved formally
to 236 and those with in-principle approval to 169.
The Board of Approvals (BoA) of the commerce ministry
also notified the list of activities, related to social
infrastructure, permitted inside the SEZs.
While the ministry deleted golf courses from the list
of authorised operations, it made it clear that the developers
would be free to build power plants, roads, water treatment
plant and other necessary facilities.
The
board gave formal clearances to 24 proposals and in-principle
nod to 20 others. This includes the SEZ proposals of Wockhardt,
Parsvnath Developers and Suncity, entailing an overall
investment of over Rs 40,000 crore.
Other
proposals cleared include heart surgeon Naresh Trehan-promoted
Global Health Private Limited's biotech SEZ in Gurgaon,
Wockhardt's pharma SEZ in Maharashtra, Suncity Haryana
SEZ Developers' IT SEZ and Ansal Properties' IT SEZ both
in Haryana.
Commerce
secretary G K Pillai said Suncity's IT SEZ envisaged an
investment of Rs811 crore and would provide employment
to 24,000 people. Besides, he said, the company had been
given in-principle nod for a 3,000 hectare multi-product
SEZ near Ambala that entailed an investment of about Rs16,000
crore.
Bentex's
Rs8,100 crore multi-services SEZ, spread over 168 hectares
in Haryana and Kandla Port Trust's Rs7,300-crore port-based
SEZ in Gujarat were among the other proposals cleared.
While
Bentex already owned the required land in the state, Suncity
was acquiring land directly from the owners without the
state government's intervention, Pillai said.
In-principle
approvals had been given to a free trade warehousing zone
in Greater Noida, a multi-product zone in Karnataka and
Shapoor Pallonji Group's IT SEZ near Pune. He said the
Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli would get its
first SEZ, with the board giving in-principle clearance
to Alok Infrastructure Private Limited's textile SEZ.
"The BoA considered a total of 92 proposals from
Gujarat, Karnataka,
Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and
West Bengal. Formal approval was given to 24 cases, while
20 proposals were given in-principle clearance,"
Pillai said.
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