The SEZ bandwagon rolls on as another list of 21 SEZs were granted formal approvals while 6 others were given in-principle nods by the board of approval (BoA) of the special economic zones (SEZs) that met here today. The committee took up 39 applications for setting up SEZs, including 8 proposals for conversion of in-principle approvals to formal approvals were considered.

The biggest name that hogged the limelight was Mukesh Ambani’s multi-product SEZ — Navi Mumbai SEZ in Dronagiri which saw its approval getting converted from in principle to formal. Others projects that met with a similar fate included the Bio-tech SEZ by Parsvnath Developers Ltd in Andhra Pradesh, Aluminum and aluminum products SEZ by Hindalco Industries in Orissa, Petro-chemicals and petroleum SEZ by Mangalore SEZ Ltd in Karnataka and Leather SEZ by APIIC in Andhra Pradesh.

Prominent among those which got the formal approvals were a multi-product SEZ by H N Company in Nagaland, IT/ITES SEZ by Unitech Infopark in Tamil Nadu, Electronic hardware and IT/ITES SEZ by True Developers in Tamil Nadu and an Engineering SEZ by SIPCOT in Tamil Nadu.

In principle approvals were granted to a Bio-tech SEZ by Videocon Realty & Infrastructure in West Bengal, multi-product SEZ by Chhindwara Plus Developers in Madhya Pradesh, Automobiles/auto ancillary SEZ by SIPCOT in Tamil Nadu and multi-product SEZ by Skil Infrastructure in Karnataka.

Board chairman and commerce secretary G K Pillai said that so far formal approvals have been granted for setting up of 341 SEZs out of which 130 have been notified. With over Rs 43,123 crore investment, these notified SEZs are generating direct employment for 35,053 persons. SEZs are likely to facilitate investment of over Rs 100,000 crore and provide employment to over 100,000 people by the year-end.

... contd.