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New Delhi, Mar 30 : The special economic zones cleared so far will use just 0.1% of India’s total farm land, says the government. The country has a total 15,34,166 sq km of agriculture land and the 396 approved SEZs will occupy just 1,750 sq km.
Of the total land mass, the SEZ territory works out to just 0.06%. The total land area of India is 29,73,190 sq km, according to government data.
To allay fears that fertile land will be used for setting up SEZs imperiling farmers, the government makes a comparison with the Hainan project in China. This SEZ is spread over 34,000 sq km. The Shenzen SEZ has come up over 327 sq km and the Xiamen SEZ occupies 131 sq km.
The Centre has been put to sword by various quarters which allege that agriculture land is being acquired for SEZs. With this data, the government hopes to drive home its point that the impact of SEZs on the country’s farm land will be negligible.The total area for the 234 SEZs having formal approval is 350 sq km (including 67 sq km for the 63 notified SEZs), while the total land area proposed to be used for 162 SEZs with approval in principle (where land is yet to be acquired) is 1,400 sq km, according to the commerce ministry. The total agriculture land is 51.6% of the country’s total land area and the total non-agriculture area is 14,39,204 sq km.
The ministry says, of the 350 sq km to be used by the 234 SEZs with formal approvals, around 178 sq km are already with State Industrial Development Corporations.
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