Latest Property News on 'Special Economic Zones'

Singapore’s Ascendas fund in $290 mln India JV

Singapore-based industrial property developer Ascendas said on Wednesday that its private property fund Ascendas India Development Trust has entered a joint venture to develop a $290 million project.

The 50-50 joint venture with India real estate fund IREO will develop an IT Special Economic Zone and a mixed-use development totaling 53 acres in Coimbatore in the state of Tamil Nadu, the unlisted developer said in a statement.

Rahejas Challenge Goa Government’s Order to Scrap SEZ

Real estate major K Raheja has challenged the Goa government’s decision to scrap the approved SEZ before the Bombay High Court. “We have already made it clear that our SEZ was non-polluting and as such has no reason for the government to stop it. We have invested a lot of money on the project,” said a senior company official on condition of anonymity soon after filing the petition before Goa bench on the Bombay HC. “We need to know on what ground it was scrapped.”

The company wants the HC to declare the state government order null and void. “The government’s action is in breach of principle of natural justice. We were not given a hearing before taking the decision,” the company said.

Genpact India’s Orissa SEZ proposal rejected

The much-awaited SEZ proposal by the IT giant Genpact India for setting up a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) here was rejected by the Centre recently.

This was revealed by Orissa’s Industries Minister Biswabhusan Harichandan today while replying a written question of BJP member Mohan Charan Majhi. Read More »

Mangalore Special Economic Zone sells over 82 acres to ISPRL

The Mangalore Special Economic Zone Limited (MSEZL), which acquired 1,800 acres of land through the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) in Mangalore taluk, has sold a portion of the land to a public sector crude oil reserve for a whopping sum of Rs 50 lakh an acre.

The MSEZL, which is the special purposes vehicle for SEZ in Mangalore, has sold 82.62 acres of land for Rs 41.31 crore to a public sector crude oil reserve. In fact, the 1,800 acres was acquired by the MSEZL for the setting up of the first phase of MSEZ which includes MRPL Phase III Refinery, Aromatic Complex, Olefin Complex and allied infrastructure facilities. Read More »

Farmers confused as to Land acquisitions for the Jhajjar SEZ

Kishan Kumar was a happy man a year ago, having pocketed more than Rs 4 crore from selling nearly 20 acres of fertile land to Reliance Industries Ltd for its 12,355-acre Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Jhajjar and Gurgaon districts of Haryana.

Today, he is one of the many landowners in the area who look back at the transaction in regret. Read More »

Gujarat set to be the biggest gainer as SEZs gather Steam

Gujarat is set to claim more than one-third of the country’s total value of exports from special economics zones (SEZ) in 2008-09 as more companies, including Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, prepare to start full-fledged operations from these regions during the year.

Exports from Gujarat’s special economic zones are projected to be worth Rs35,000 crore in fiscal 2009, or 35% of the Rs1 trillion in estimated exports from all SEZs in the country, said Ravi Saxena, development commissioner, Kandla Special Economic Zone, Gujarat. In the following year, the state’s SEZ exports are expected to double to more than Rs70,000 crore. Read More »

Reliance (ADAG) Group may tie up with Indiabulls for Raigad SEZ

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) company Reliance Energy Ltd. (REL) is reportedly forming a 50:50 joint venture (JV) with Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd. to develop the 6,000-acre multi-product special economic zone (SEZ) in Maharashtra’s Raigad district.

This move is part of REL’s plan to diversify into real estate and infrastructure development businesses, says a financial daily. The company aims to utilise the 22-km Mumbai Trans Harbour Link project from Sewree to Nhava-Sheva as a logistics link to the SEZ, the newspaper adds. Read More »

Pune to lead in IT/ITeS Commercial Space

Pune’s skyline is set for a big change, thanks to the commercial space being developed for the IT/ITeS sector. By 2010 an estimated 100 million sq ft of IT/ ITeS specific commercial space is expected to come up in seven cities through Special Economic Zones alone in India. Pune leads this list with 23 per cent of this amount -that is about 23 million sq ft which is almost one-fourth of the total space thus created.

While Hyderabad has maximum area to its credit on the basis of supply potential, Pune ups it on sheer ground implementation, according to the report titled ‘SEZs in India: Here comes the sun’ put together by DTZ, a global real estate adviser. In this estimated supply of office space Pune is followed by Delhi NCR with 18 million sq ft, Hyderabad and Chennai with 15 million sq ft each, Bangalore at 13 million sq ft, Kolkata with 10 million sq ft and Mumbai at seven million sq ft. Even if the entire 100 million sq ft does not come up due to any delays, the report puts at least 60-70 million sq ft as achievable target by 2010 in the country. Read More »

Government has no Plans to Amend the SEZ Act

Despite mounting pressure from the Left allies, government on Wednesday made it clear that it has no plans to amend the Special Economic Zone Act saying it is ‘working well’. Replying to supplementary to a host of questions on SEZs in Rajya Sabha, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said special economic zones have become important engines of economic growth.

“At the moment, there is no proposal to amend the SEZ Act. It has worked well, it is working well. It is providing growth in employment and is one of the important engines of economy,” he said. The minister’s reply triggered angry reactions from Left, BJP and some Congress members, who claimed that SEZs have become real estate business as norms are being violated and sought a special discussion on the matter. Read More »

CAG Report Reveals a Rs. 2,000-Crore Revenue Leakage in SEZ Units

With units in special economic zones (SEZs) permitted to treat their domestic sales as export earnings, the government had to forgo revenue amounting to nearly Rs. 2,000 crore, the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG) has revealed.

Making a case for an amendment to the SEZ Act, the CAG, in its report presented to Parliament on Tuesday, said: “SEZ units have been achieving the prescribed net foreign exchange earnings (NFE) mainly through domestic sales, defeating one of the sub-objectives of the scheme, which was to augment exports.” Read More »