RIL's Maha Mumbai SEZ may get extension

The board of approvals (BoA) for special economic zones (SEZ) is likely to extend tomorrow the validity of in-principle clearance to Reliance Industries' Maha Mumbai SEZ under the new rules that limit its size to 5,000 hectares.

"The extension of validity has been under the new rules that limit the size of a SEZ to 5,000 hectares," a government official said. Reliance had earlier proposed Maha Mumbai SEZ over an area of 10,000 hectares and received in-principle approval for project in August last year.

The amendment to rules notified in March had reduced the validity of in-principle approval to one year from three years previously, but BoA was given the powers to extend the validity by two more years.

Besides the Maha Mumbai project, the BoA, headed by Commerce Secretary G K Pillai, will take up eight fresh proposals. These include five zones for in-principle nod and three for formal approvals. Of these, two relate to Infosys Technologies which wants to set up IT and ITES zones near Hyderabad. The biggest zone coming up for in-principle approval is by Ispat Industries, which wants to set up a 1,012 hectare multi-product SEZ in Maharashtra's Raigad district.

Read more in Business Standard

Ambani brothers ride Mumbai`s makeover

Today, if you travel by road from the central suburb of Ghatkopar to the western suburb of Versova, it could take you an hour if you are not caught in a bad traffic jam. Come 2009 and you could cover the same distance by the Mumbai metro in 21 minutes and, since the metro will have air-conditioned coaches, you can hope to arrive in good shape. Besides, the maximum fare of Rs 10 will not pinch most pockets.

Similarly, if you are a businessman or a senior executive tired of coping with the city’s crumbling infrastructure, you could think of buying an apartment in the Navi Mumbai special economic zone (SEZ), which promises to offer living conditions on a par with the world’s most sophisticated cities. The city will come up next to the Navi Mumbai airport from where you could catch a flight to anywhere in the world.

And in case you are worrying about visiting Mumbai, a new 22.5 km, six-lane highway across the harbour will get you to central Mumbai in just 30 minutes.

Sounds too good? Well, that’s a glimpse of the future of Mumbai. And what’s common in these dream infrastructure projects is that the Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, are either involved or pitching for them. Read more in Business Standard

GMR Infra plans SEZ in Tamil Nadu

Bangalore-based GMR Infrastructure has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) for the development of a multi-product special economic zone (SEZ) in Krishnagiri district.

According to a release issued by GMR to the BSE today, the SEZ would be developed through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to be set up through a joint venture in partnership with TIDCO.

The multi-product SEZ will be spread around 3,300 acres, and the cost for developing the basic infrastructure is estimated around Rs 2,300 crore. The total development cost, including industrial and social infrastructure, would be around Rs 11,000 crore.

The SEZ would be operational by 2009, and the entire development would be completed by 2014, the release added.

Infosys, Ispat, Genpact & Enfield await Aug 8 SEZ meet of BoA

Four major industry players Infosys, Ispat, Genpact, Enfield await the August 8 crucial decision on Special Economic Zones (SEZ) of Board of Approvals (BoA).

osys has submitted two SEZ proposals of about 120 hectares and 61 in Andhra Pradesh. While Ispat's 1,012 hectares SEZ at Raigad in Maharashtra will come up for clearance.

Enfield Infrastructure has submitted three applications for setting up IT/ITES SEZs in 16 hectares at West Bengal. Genpact India has notified its desire to set up a 10 hectare IT/ITES SEZ in Jaipur and Adarsh Prime Projects a 468 hectare IT/ITES SEZ in Karnataka.

In all, 132 SEZs have been notified, in addition to 340 such projects with formal approval and 171 with in-principal nod.

According to the commerce ministry, over Rs 43123 crore have been invested in these notified SEZs and it says that these SEZ may provide direct employment to 35,053 persons.

Narayana Murthy opposes SEZ policy

BANGALORE: Software icon N R Narayana Murthy on Wednesday opposed the practice of acquiring farm lands for special economic zones (SEZs), saying that the earlier practice of companies building their own campuses was good enough.

"I agree that we cannot take land from farmers", the non-executive chairman and chief mentor of Infosys Technologies Limited told reporters, who sought his views on the raging debate over SEZs.

"The earlier policy, where individual companies were building their own campuses, was a good one," he said, adding that bringing real estate players in between was probably not the best thing to do.

Read more at Economic Times

Govt to review SEZ approvals

After violence in Nandigram, the Government has decided not to give further approvals for Special Economic Zones where acquisition of land is being resisted.

"When land is to be acquired and it is not decided how the land will be taken and justice done to farmers the freeze would remain (on SEZs even if they have other approvals)," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Study Conference.

Yesterday, he had said that the Empowered Group of Ministers on SEZs would look "distinctively" at the cases where land was not an issue and where acquisition was a problem.

This would ease the way for notification of around 172 proposals of SEZs, where land was available and formal approval of the Board of Approval has been received.

Read more at Financial Express