Construction work on MSEZ to commence in October

Mangalore, Aug 26 (UNI) The construction work on the Mangalore Special Economic Zone (MSEZ) is expected to commence during October this year and it would be commissioned by 2010-11, said Mr. ISN Prasad, the Managing Director of MSEZ here today.

Speaking at the launching of the website of MSEZ here he said that the company had acquired 1171.8 acres of land for the project and process was under way for the acquisition for another 2131.11 acres.

For rehabilitation and resettlement (R and R) colony, the company had already acquired 110 Acres of land and another 410 acres would be acquired soon.

To commence the project work, the evacuation process had already been started, he said.

Mr. Prasad said the company had got the Consents For Establishment (CFE) from Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) for the project and from Phase I of the project and R and R colony.

Environmental clearance had also been obtained for R and R colony Phase II, III and IV. The Ministry of Commerce (MOC) had also issued notification for sector specific SEZ and the Ministry for Environment and Forest (MoEF) had given its clearance for 1800 acres land, he said adding that with these approvals, the company was now in its implementation stage.

Allying the fears expressed by the some section of the land losers and others, Mr. Prasad said that in the total land being acquired for the project, only 8 per cent o the land was agricultural land.

The company had taken full care to see that the environment and ecology was fully protected. The company will also take care to see that the pollution level would be within the specified load as prescribed by the KSPCB. The company had also envisaged to use 36 per cent of the total land for creation of green belt, he said.

Mr. Prasad said that the company required a total of 3985 acres of land for general purpose multi-product SEZ. It The company was currently notified for sector specific SEZ (petroleum and petrochemicals).

The proposed units coming in the MSEZ included Aromatic Complex by ONGC Mangalore Petrochemicals Limited (ONGCMPL) to produce 0.9 MMTPA Paraxylene and 0.25 MMPTA Benzene at the total cost of over Rs. 5000 crore, Strategic Crude Oil storage facility by Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL) at the total cost of over Rs. 1000 crore, Expansion of MRPL refinery to increase the production to 15 MMPTA at Rs. 8000 crore, Olefin complex for propylene/Para propylene, ethylene/polyethylene at the cost of Rs.

12,000 crore and downstream petrochemical industries of various type, he said.

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