Notify SEZs sans legal hassles over land acquisition: Maran

OINEETOM OJAH
Posted online: Thursday, April 05, 2007 at 0000 hours IST

NEW DELHI, APR 4: In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last
week, information and technology minister Dayanidhi Maran argued in
favour of notifying all the special economic zones (SEZs), where land
has been acquired without any legal problems.
Maran's letter along with another letter from Chhattisgarh chief
minister Raman Singh will be considered as supplementary agenda during
the empowered group of ministers (eGOM) meeting expected to be held on
Thursday.

Singh, in his letter, contended that huge multi-product SEZs would have
an adverse impact on small-scale industries and demanded capping the
maximum area for such SEZs at 200 hectares.

Sources said, the eGOM will consider putting a cap of 10,000 hectares on
multi-product SEZs. So far there is no ceiling on the upper limit for
land to be acquired for such zones.

Earlier, chief ministers of several states including Tamil Nadu, Andhra
Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and Haryana had mounted pressure on the
Centre by writing to the members of the eGOM on de-freezing the ban on
notification for SEZ proposals where land has been procured without
legal hassles.

The letter of Maran, who is a member of the eGOM, assumes significance
as he had told reporters in Chennai last week that the eGOM meeting
would be held this week. He had also said that the freeze on SEZs is a
hindrance to growth in states like Tamil Nadu, where most of the SEZs
are promoted in the already acquired barren lands. The minister added
that prolonging the ban on notification for SEZ proposals with land will
only send wrong signal to investors who have committed huge investment
in such zones.

Story So Far
• Many CMs want the Centre to de-freeze the ban on notification for SEZ
proposals
• So far, there is no ceiling on the upper limit for land to be acquired
for SEZs
• The eGoM will consider putting a cap of 10,000 hectares on
multi-product SEZs

Over 20 SEZs, which have obtained in-principle and final approvals, have
to be notified in Tamil Nadu. The total land size of most of these
proposed zones are not more than 500 acres.

Meanwhile, none of the proposals for SEZs from West Bengal and those
backed by big names like Reliance or Posco and Tata's Gopalpur project
(both in Orissa), figure in the 84 SEZs which are likely to get the
eGoM's clearance for notification.

The maximum number of SEZs in the list of 84, where SEZ land has been
procured without legal hassles, is from Andhra Pradesh (23). While 14
are from Maharashtra, 12 are from Karnataka.

The important proposals in the list are Maharashtra Airport Development
Ltd's airport-based multi-product SEZ in Nagpur, Bajaj's auto SEZ in
Aurangabad.

Also IT SEZs of Infosys in Pune, Mahindra in Jaipur, HCL in Bangalore,
Satyam in Andhra Pradesh, Parsvnath in Indore and that of NIIT in
Greater Noida, Wipro in Noida, Adanis' power SEZ in Gujarat, Brandix's
apparel SEZ and Lotus's footwear SEZ in Tamil Nadu.

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=160119