Kerala proposes to set up textiles, gems/jewellery SEZs

Kochi, Aug 13: The Kerala government has initiated steps to set up product specific Special Economic Zones (SEZs) for textiles at Kanjikode in Palakkad district and for gems and jewellery at Kalamasserry in Kochi, State Industries Minister Elamaram Kareem said.

Addressing an interactive session here last evening on 'SEZs in Kerala Context', Mr Kareem said another proposal from a private sector company, to set up a multi-product SEZ at Kasargod, was also under the active consideration of the Government for recommending to the union commerce ministry.

Kerala had so far received approval to set up six SEZs in the State. These included three product specific SEZs of the Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (KINFRA) in the sectors of animation and geming, electronics and food processing.

Apart from these, the Central Government had also approved three other proposals to set up SEZs at Info Park, Kochi, Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram and a port-based SEZ at Cochin.

Mr Kareem said the State was finding it difficult to meet the land area criteria, stipulated in the SEZ Rules 2006 of the union Commerce ministry.

He urged the Centre to grant a special status to Kerala, considering the limited land availability, high land cost, high density of population and continuous urban-rural landscape.

As per the SEZ Rules 2006, the minimum contiguous area for a multi-product SEZ should be 1,000 hectares, for specific sector/ port/airport should be 100 hectares, and for IT/ITES, should be ten hectares.

UNI