NEW DELHI: The Union Government has approved another 44 special economic zones (SEZs), including those of Wockhardt, Ansals, Parsvnath Developers and Suncity, involving an investment of over Rs. 40,000 crore.

In addition, it has cleared the first textile sector SEZ in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

The Board of Approval in the Commerce Ministry has given formal clearances to 24 proposals and in-principle approval to 20 others. This brings the total formal approvals to 236 and in-principle approvals to 169.

A formal notification giving the list of activities, related to social infrastructure, permitted to be set up inside the SEZs has also been issued which deletes golf courses from the list of authorised operations.

Briefing newspersons here on Friday, Commerce Secretary G. K. Pillai said out of the 236 SEZs approved so far, only 36 had so far been notified by the Government.

He said the board considered a total of 92 proposals from Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Formal approval was given to 24 cases, while 20 proposals were given in-principle clearance.

Among the proposals cleared, he said, were heart surgeon Naresh Trehan- promoted Global Health Private Limited's biotech SEZ in Gurgaon, Wockhardt's pharma SEZ in Maharashtra, Suncity Haryana SEZ Developers' IT SEZ in Haryana and Ansal Properties' IT SEZ in the same State.

Giving investment details, he said Suncity's IT SEZ envisaged an investment of Rs. 811 crore and would provide employment to 24,000 people. Besides, he said, the company had been given in-principle nod for a 3,000 hectare multi-product SEZ near Ambala that entailed an investment of about Rs. 16,000 crore. Bentex's Rs. 8,100 crore multi-services SEZ, spread over 168 hectares in Haryana, Kandla Port Trust's Rs 7,300-crore port-based SEZ in Gujarat and Parsvnath Developers' Rs. 1,900-crore IT SEZ were among the other proposals cleared.

Mr. Pillai clarified that while Bentex already owned the required land in the State, Suncity was acquiring land directly from the owners without the State government's intervention.

In-principle approvals had been given to a free trade warehousing zone in Greater Noida, a multi-product zone in Karnataka and Shapoor Pallonji Group's IT SEZ near Pune. He said the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli would get its first SEZ, with the board giving in-principle clearance to Alok Infrastructure Private Limited's textile SEZ.

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