The Hindu Business Line : 44 new SEZs approved

The Centre on Friday approved 44 fresh Special Economic Zones, including those proposed to be set up by Wockhardt, Parsvnath Developers, Ansal Properties and Suncity.

At its meeting here, the Board of Approvals in the Commerce Ministry gave formal clearances to 24 SEZ proposals and in-principle nod to 20 others, entailing an aggregate investment of Rs 40,000 crore. That takes the total applications so far approved to 236 and those with in-principle clearance to 169.

The Ministry further notified a master list of operations to be used by the Board for authorising operations to be undertaken in the SEZs. The Ministry has deleted golf courses from the list of authorised operations, but the developers would be free to build power plants, roads, water treatment plant and other necessary facilities.

"The Board 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," the Commerce Secretary, Mr G.K. Pillai told presspersons.

The proposals cleared at Friday's meeting included the noted cardiologist, Dr Naresh Trehan's Global Health Pvt Ltd's biotech SEZ at Gurgaon, Wockhardt's pharma SEZ in Maharashtra and Suncity Haryana SEZ Developers' and Ansal Properties and Infrastructure's IT SEZs in Haryana.

Besides, in-principle approvals were 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. The Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli will get its first SEZ, with the Board giving in-principle nod to Alok Infrastructure Pvt Ltd's textile SEZ.

Out of the 236 SEZs given formal nod, the Centre has so far notified 36, Mr Pillai added.

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