The Hindu Business Line : Mahindra acquiring land for another SEZ

MAHINDRA World City (MWC), the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) near Chennai, is taking the development of an integrated business township into the second phase.

Mr B.G. Menon, Chief Operating Officer, Mahindra World City Developers Ltd, said that the company has started acquiring about 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) to develop another integrated SEZ.

It may be recalled that this integrated business township started out as the Mahindra Industrial Park and was repositioned as an SEZ and renamed Mahindra World City, a year ago. The Mahindra World City Developers Ltd, a special purpose vehicle, was re-branded recently. The Mahindra Group and Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation have promoted it.

The first phase, set in 1,400 acres, has three sector specific SEZs for auto ancillary, information technology (IT) and garment industries.

Mr Menon said that lease rental rates (most of the land is leased for about 99 years) in the MWC were higher than elsewhere. For instance, an acre of land in MWC costs about Rs 40 lakh. But MWC offers developed areas with roads (45 m and 25 m), telecom and broadband connectivity and water, power, storm water drains etc.

The company is also in talks with the Railways to improve rail link, Mr Menon said.

Ascendas along with MWC is developing over a million square feet business facility in the IT SEZ. Infosys, the anchor client, has taken up 129 acres to build its facility. Other IT companies that have taken space here are Nera Electronics, Electronic Recycling Solutions, Mastek and Kanbay Software. In the auto component SEZ, Madras Engineering Industries Ltd, and Sundaram Brake Linings Ltd have taken space. Recently, the German carmaker BMW decided to set up its facility here.

The garment SEZ has Capella Fashions, MAS Linea Fashion, Leathercraft India, Visaka Industries Ltd and Intermode International.

In the domestic tariff area, B. Braun has taken space for its second production unit. The other companies here are Kryolan Cosmetics and TTK Healthcare. Mahindra Gesco Developers Ltd (a group company) will develop a 22-acre residential area with 200 units. The company will set up a school within the campus and Apollo Hospitals a medical centre. A 50,000 sq ft retail space will be set up, he said.

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