Worried about the slow progress of the proposed special economic zones (SEZs) to be set up by Reliance Haryana SEZ Ltd in Gurgaon and Jhajjar districts, the Haryana government has asked the company to think in terms of setting up a series of SEZs rather than remaining stuck up with the originally conceived framework of two SEZs of 12,500 acres each.
Top officials said that the state government has also critically examined the total land acquired by the company to explore the possibility of setting up SEZs of 2,500 acres each on the available chunks which could be ultimately clubbed into one large multi-product SEZ.
The projects which came up for review at a high powered meeting attended by Haryana and Reliance officials last month have been moving at a sluggish pace, primarily due to hold ups in land procurement, the official said.
Despite repeated attempts, officials of neither Reliance nor HSIIDC (Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corp, the joint venture government partner) responded to queries by Hindustan Times.
As per the minutes of the review meeting, representatives of the company said that apart from 1383.68 acres of HSIIDC land in Gurgaon district, the SPV has procured about 7,000 acres in Jhajjar district and about 1,200 acres in Gurgaon district.
But the 1,200 acres in Gurgaon have been acquired in bits and pieces, do not have contiguity and are located far from the HSIIDC land. The representatives also noted that though a large amount of land has been procured by the company in Jhajjar district and at least one SEZ of 2,500 acres could be created with the state government acquiring about 800 acres of land under its policy, a similar exercise was required to be carried out regarding the remaining parcels of land to make contiguous blocks.
{{/usCountry}}But the 1,200 acres in Gurgaon have been acquired in bits and pieces, do not have contiguity and are located far from the HSIIDC land. The representatives also noted that though a large amount of land has been procured by the company in Jhajjar district and at least one SEZ of 2,500 acres could be created with the state government acquiring about 800 acres of land under its policy, a similar exercise was required to be carried out regarding the remaining parcels of land to make contiguous blocks.
{{/usCountry}}“The company has been advised to submit a layout plan of land purchased for both the SEZs for evaluating the additional requirement of land for making the chunk contiguous,” a senior official told Hindustan Times.
“We have also suggested to devise a realistic land consolidation plan besides identifying possible chunks of 2,500 acres which could be converted into multi-product SEZs.”
Officials said that considering the situation, it would be prudent for the company to accumulate land and start a series of SEZs. “We have asked them to consider this while preparing their business plan,” the official said.