Govt to consider 15 new SEZs proposals tomorrow

New Delhi, Jun 3 (UNI) The inter-ministerial meeting of board of approval (BoA) for special economic zones will take up tomorrow 15 new proposals for SEZs, including six by Deccan Infrastructure which wants to set up six information technology and ITeS projects in Andhra Pradesh.

Of the total proposals, as many as 11 relate to IT and electronic hardware projects. This include one by Larsen and Toubro (L&T) which proposes to set up an IT/ITeS unit on 14.88 hectares in Vadodara, Gujarat. Deccan's projects, if approved, will come up on about 114 hectares of land.

The board will also consider giving formal nod to SEZ proposals of Gremach Infrastructure Equipments and Projects, Maharashtra Industrial Development Co-operation (MIDC) and Essel Infraprojects in Maharashtra. All these projects had earlier got in-principle approval of the BoA.

The government has so far given formal approval to 428 SEZs, of which 222 have been notified. Direct employment in the notified zones was 97,993 at March-end 2008.

Exports from the tax-free enclaves recorded a 92 per cent growth in 2007-08 and stood at Rs 66,638 crore.

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