The Hindu Business Line : Board of Approval for SEZ plans series of meetings

New Delhi May 7 With the Empowered Group of Ministers (eGoM) having lifted the freeze on approval of special economic zones (SEZ) in the country, set ceiling on acquisition of lands at 5,000 hectares and prescribed uniform processing area of 50 per cent to both sector-specific and multi-product SEZ on April 5, the Board of Approval (BoA) for SEZ has lined up a string of meetings this month and in June to give nod to fresh cases and clear the backlog.

Official sources told Business Line here that the first in the series of four meetings of the BoA is being scheduled on May 9 where the board headed by the Commerce Secretary, Mr Gopal K. Pillai, would scrutinise 23 fresh cases for in-principle approval.

Included in the schedule is the Navi Mumbai SEZ Pvt Ltd's proposal for a multi-product SEZ spread over 1,250 hectares (ha). Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation's (TIDCO) proposal for a multi-product SEZ in Nanguneri Taluk , Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu spread over 1,020 hectares also comes up for approval.

In its second scheduled meeting slated on May 31, , the BoA would consider approval of as many as 40 cases in which new proposals would be eight and the balance 32 would be deferred cases from the past. The three multi-product SEZ cases coming up for approval in this meeting include SRM Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, Alwar, Rajasthan for a multi-product SEZ spread over 1000 ha; the Gopalpur SEZ Ltd in Ganjam district Orissa for a multi-product SEZ in 1,173 ha; and a multi-product SEZ proposed by Indian Infrastructure Corporation in Bhuj district of Gujarat on an area of 1,012 ha.

In its third scheduled meeting on June 5, the BoA would consider as many as 37 new cases and 3 deferred cases for approval in which Rewas Ports Ltd Raigarh, Maharashtra for establishing a multi-product SEZ in an area of 2,850 ha would come up for clearance.

For the fourth meeting on June 22, no formal list of approvals has been made till now, the sources said.

Officials said that as on May 1 the number of SEZs notified stood at 100 with the maximum of notified SEZ status being claimed by Andhra Pradesh at 26, including the Brandix India Apparel City Pvt Ltd near Visakhapatnam, which was notified on April 10. This is followed by Tamil Nadu at 15, Karnataka at 14, Maharashtra at 13, Gujarat and Haryana at 7 each, Kerala at 6, Uttar Pradesh 3, Punjab, and Madhya Pradesh at two each and Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Goa, Chandigarh and West Bengal one each.