A number of developers in Maharashtra have decided to abandon plans of building new Special Economic Zones (SEZs), given the global recession and new taxes on SEZs. Plans are afoot to ensure that land acquired for the SEZs would now be converted into an integrated industrial township, which will have a mix of industrial and residential areas.
The Maharashtra Government, under its forthcoming industrial policy, has decided to create a sub-policy for such integrated industrial townships. The industrial policy is under the consideration of the State Cabinet and is to come up for discussion tomorrow .
Maharashtra has 103 formally approved SEZs. While 64 SEZs have been notified, another 16 have been approved in-principle.
A senior Maharashtra Government official told
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SEZs which have 40 hectares (100 acres) of contiguous area can be converted into townships provided they mandatory build 24 metres of access roads, the official said.
An internal policy document, perused by Business Line , notes that designated Information Technology (IT) and Biotechnology (BT) SEZs of less than 40 hectares would attract provisions of the existing IT and BT policies of the Maharashtra Government.
If the SEZ land is acquired by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) in a joint venture with a private developer, then the MIDC would have the rights to plan the township, the document states. It added that the same would be applicable for SEZs, which have been planned by the City Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra.
Developers are to also get 10 years to develop the townships, the formal approval of which will be given by MIDC. The proposal for developing the townships would also have to be publicly notified by the MIDC, the document added.