It is learnt that the Board of Approvals has deferred more than 150 proposals. Most of the proposals have been postponed because they have not been backed by state governments as they had come to BoA for approval directly. In addition, the board has received about 60 fresh applications.

The cases which come directly to the BoA are referred to the state governments for various approvals. The clearance at the state government-end takes more than 15 days that are given as notice for the BoA meeting.

Despite clearances from state government taking time the cases are listed for consideration as that process of approval could be put on fast track even from the state government's side. Some of the cases have been deferred because of delay in security clearances. The security agencies too are finding it tough to meet the deadline of 15 days to give clearance and a proposal has been mooted to increase it to 30 days.

So far as many as 236 proposals for SEZs have got formal approval, while in-principle approval has been given to 169 by BoA.

Also See:

BoA approves 44 SEZ approvals (28-Oct-06)