UP forwards 10 proposals to Centre to set up SEZs

Lucknow, Dec 7 (UNI) In pursuance of its policy to speed up industrial and economic growth and to attract investment in the state, Uttar Pradesh Government's Empowered Committee on Special Economic Zones (SEZs) has forwarded 10 proposals to the Centre for approval to set up SEZs in the state.

The committee met under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary P K Mishra to review and expedite the process of clearance to various SEZs proposals on merit as per the revised SEZ policy of the State last evening.

Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner Atul Kumar Gupta told UNI here today that in the last few months, ample thought was given to address the issues of displacement of people without affecting the industrial and economic development.

In this direction, UP had revised the State SEZ policy in the light of amendments made by the Centre regarding land issues and others. Present SEZ provisions have attracted interest from investors and developers mostly in setting up of small SEZs in general and IT/ITeS sector.

Mr Gupta said the trend is visible in proposals received in state also, out of the 10 proposals cleared by empowered committee , eight are in IT/ITeS sector including one to be developed by UP State Industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC) at Tronica City in Ghaziabad.

In June this year, the central government had decided to restrain compulsory acquisition of land by States for SEZs. It also fixed 5,000 hectares as upper limit of land area on which a SEZ can be established.

Udyog Bandhu Secretary Archana Agrawal said UP was keen to promote SEZs in the state. Accordingly after revision of SEZ policy in August, 2007, pending and fresh proposals had been received in detail and based on completion of transfer and lease-deed formalities, proposals were being recommended to the Centre, she said.

One information technology(IT) enabled services sector-specific (IT/ITeS) SEZ- M/s Perfect IT/ITeS SEZ Pvt Ltd, which has been accorded Special Purpose Vehicle(SPV) status by NOIDA Authority and lease-deed for the required land has been executed, was cleared in November 2007, to be set up in right earnest after due notification.

M/s Perfect IT/ITeS SEZ Pvt Ltd had already been granted formal approval by Board of Approvals (BoA) on SEZ of Government of India.

Keeping in view the immense scope of exports, employment generation and expertise available in information technology in the state, committee forwarded a proposal yesterday for setting up of IT/ITeS SEZ by Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Development Corporation(UPSIDC) in Tronica City at Ghaziabad to Board of Approvals for formal approval.

In a significant decision, the empowered committee also decided yesterday in its meeting,to forward eight SEZ proposals to centre for in-principle approval. Out of these, 6 are IT/ITeS sector-specific SEZs, which have been recommended for in-principle approval to BoA, including proposals by- M/s Wipro Ltd, M/s Uppal Housing Ltd&M/s Gallant Infrastructure Pvt Ltd at Greater Noida; M/s Sarva Mangal Realtech Pvt Ltd&M/s Jubilant Infracon Pvt Ltd at NOIDA.

Besides, two SEZs are proposed to be set up at Lucknow by M/s Ansal Properties &Infrastructure Ltd including one IT/ITeS SEZ and one sector-specific Biotech SEZ. These two proposals along with one proposal of M/s Jhujhunwala Vanaspati Ltd&Hari Fertilisers Ltd for setting up of multi-services SEZ with a 25 megawatt captive power plant at Chandauli have also been recommended to the centre for in-principle approval.

UNI