The UP government empowered committee on Special Economic Zones (SEZs) has forwarded ten proposals and sought Centre’s nod for setting up SEZs in the state. Of the ten proposals cleared by the committee, eight are in the IT/ITes sector, including one to be developed by UPSIDC at Tronica City in Ghaziabad. This has been done in view of the immense scope of exports, employment generation and expertise available in information technology sector in the state.
Lucknow will bag the other two SEZs, one an IT SEZ and the other a biotech SEZ.
Of the eight proposals forwarded to the Centre, six are IT/ITeS sector-specific SEZs. These include Wipro Ltd, Uppal Housing Ltd and Gallant Infrastructure Pvt Ltd at Greater Noida, Sarva Mangal Realtech Pvt Ltd and Jubilant Infracon Pvt Ltd at Noida.
The empowered committee on SEZs met under the chairmanship of chief secretary, P K Mishra to review and expedite the process of clearance to various SEZs proposals according to the revised SEZ policy of the state. The state government revised the SEZ policy in the light of amendments made by the Centre regarding land issues. Infrastructure and industrial development commissioner, Atul K Gupta said that the present SEZ provisions have attracted interest from investors and developers mostly in setting up of small SEZs in general and IT/IteS-specific SEZs in particular.
The Centre, in June, decided to restrain compulsory acquisition of land by states for SEZs. It also fixed 5000 hectares as upper limit of land area on which a SEZ can be established.
An information technology-enabled services sector-specific SEZ by Perfect IT/ITeS SEZ Pvt Ltd, which has already been accorded SPV status by Noida Authority and the lease-deed for the required land has also been executed, was cleared in November 2007. It will be set up in right earnest after due notification, said Gupta, adding that the project has already been granted formal approval by board of approvals on SEZ.
Besides, two SEZs are proposed to be set up at Lucknow by Ansal Properties and Infrastructure Ltd, including one IT/ITeS SEZ and one sector-specific Biotech SEZ.