The Union government, on 17 March 2006, cleared Rs.1,00,000 crore of investment in SEZs, coming up in an area of 40,000 acres of land which is expected to create jobs for over 5,00,000 people.

The Board of Approval, cleared 148 of 166 proposals, including those of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, Biocon, Satyam Computers and DLF Universal. 

The SEZs cleared by the board are:

• Reliance Infrastructure Ltd - petrochemical SEZ at Jamnagar spread over 450 acres with an investment of over Rs.20,000 crore. 
• Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation's - multi-product SEZ over 4,370 acres, with an estimated investment of over Rs.4,000 crore.
• Two proposals of the Adani group - the Mundra SEZ of Gujarat Adani Port Ltd spread over 5,000 acres and Adani Chemicals' SEZ, also in Gujarat, spread over 7,000 acres with an estimated investment of over Rs.12,000 crore was also cleared.
• Biocon's proposal for a bio-technology SEZ in Bangalore spread over 90 acres with an investment of around Rs.200 crore.
•  IT sector proposals, three by Satyam Computers Services Ltd for SEZs in Thotlakonda in Visakhapatnam, Bahadurpalli in Hyderabad and one in Hyderabad city.
• Two proposals by DLF Universal for SEZs spread over 1,000 hectares in Punjab and 8,000 hectares in Haryana. 
• Two proposals by Jubilant Organosys Ltd for SEZs in Gujarat and Mysore.

The proposals which the board deferred is as follows:

• Setting up two power SEZs by Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) at Chandrapur district. One proposal is for a 1,000 MW SEZ spread over 1,100 hectares and another for a 150 MW SEZ spread over 103 hectares. 
• Reliance Industries' Navi Mumbai SEZ proposal pertaining to acquisition of additional 850 hectares of land was deferred because of CIDCO still being in possession of the land.
• At least 18 proposals pertaining to three states - West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu was also deferred because of state elections.

Also See:

BoA to consider 33 SEZ applications (24-Feb-06)