Govt to cancel approvals to 5 SEZs in West Bengal.

The government is set to cancel formal approvals given to five special economic zone (SEZ) projects — all in West Bengal — on the ground that the developers did not make any effort to indicate future plans for the proposed projects despite the approvals expiring several years ago.

The projects to face the axe include Dalmia & Co Ltd’s leather complex in Bantala,

The others are Orion IT Parks Pvt Ltd’s IT SEZ at Rajarhat, Kolkata, Salarpuria Properties project in South 24 Parganas, Bengal Shristi Infrastructure Development Ltd in Asansol, Burdwan and Abex Infocom’s IT SEZ in South 24 Parganas.

The Board of Approval (BoA) for SEZs, in its meeting on April 28, will consider the proposal for cancellation of these SEZs made by the development commissioners (DC) of these zones. The DCs, in all the five cases, observed that not only did the developers not submit any documents for extension of the expired approvals, but most did not turn up for hearings for cancellation of the formal approval.

A number of SEZ developers have voluntarily given up their formal approvals citing the industrial slowdown and withdrawal of tax incentives for both developers and units as the reason for the projects becoming unattractive.

Development commissioners have also recommended extension of formal approval for five projects, expressing satisfaction with the work the developers have done so far to indicate their interest in the projects.

These include Wipro’s IT SEZ in Bangalore, Vedanta Aluminium Ltd’s proposed SEZ for manufacture and export of aluminium in Odisha and Mayar Infrastructure Development’s proposed bio-technology SEZ at Gurugram, Haryana.

HBL