SEZs in Mah to create 69 lakh jobs: Deshmukh

Mumbai, Nov 19 (UNI) After the Union Government approved 131 special economic zones (SEZs) for Maharashtra, approximately 69 lakh jobs would be available for the people of the state, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said today.

Mr Deshmukh said the employment opportunities would be generated for all categories of people including skilled, unskilled, technical and manual labour.

The Chief Minister had announced in October creation of a Special Education Zone for imparting training to these people.

Of the 131 SEZs, Konkan region will have 64, Western Maharashtra 44, Marathwada 14 and Vidarbha 9. Due to these SEZs, around 44,282 hectare area is likely to be developed.

For the MahaMumbai SEZ, the state government intends to acquire about 10,000 hectares of land of which 8,000 hectares has been acquired, an official release said.

Maharashtra Industrical Development Corporation and Maharashtra Development Corporation together will set up seven SEZs on their 5,780 hectares of land.

For the SEZ in Navi Mumbai, CIDCO will jointly develop it and for that, it has acquired 1,700 hectare area.

The government is against development of land under irrigation for SEZ, he said adding that farmers and landholders will be given adequate rehabilitation package.

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