The Board of Approval for Special Economic Zones on 12 June 2006 approved 23 proposals (including six pending) entailing 2,100 ha with an estimated investment component of Rs.14,000 crore.

This has taken the total number of SEZs approved since the SEZ Act of February 2006, to 103. Though 103 SEZ proposals have been cleared, the notified SEZs include the ones established in Chennai by Nokia, Flextronics, Mahindra and Apache Footwear in Andhra Pradesh.

The new proposals include those by Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation, Kerala Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation, Chhattisgarh Industrial Development Corporation for textiles, animation games, food processing and pharmaceuticals. The Essar group is to put up an exclusive chemcial product SEZ, while Sulzon International is to put up near Mangalore port an SEZ for hi-tech engineering products and related services. The BoA also cleared for the first time an SEZ exclusively meant for handicrafts to be developed by Parsvanth Developers Ltd in 100 ha of land in Uttar Pradesh.

The BoA also gave in-principle approval to Dubai-based Emmar MGF Pvt Ltd in which FDI of around $1 billion is likely to flow in three SEZs in areas covering information technology, auto components and gem and jewellery.