Hyderabad: The Telangana government has sought cancellation of “SEZ status” to 20 Special Economic Zones that failed to commence operations even after allotment of thousands of acres of land more than five years ago.
Most of the SEZs are located in neighbouring districts of Hyderabad, namely Ranga Reddy, Mahbubnagar, Medak and Nalgonda, which command huge real estate value. These SEZs together hold nearly 12,000 acre of expensive lands.
The Congress government in undivided AP had sanctioned 70 SEZs in Telangana. Of them only 30 are operational and 40 remain non-functional or semi-functional.
Of them, 20 SEZs failed to commence any operations and the Telangana State government is seeking cancellation of their SEZ status now.
Interestingly, majority of these 20 SEZs are owned by Deccan Infrastructure and Land Holdings Ltd, which was floated by the YSR government to promote housing and real estate around Hyderabad.
The Telangana government wants to take over lands of the remaining SEZs in the second phase. It has written to the Centre seeking cancellation of SEZs.
The SEZs in the cancellation list include: Pharma SEZ allotted to Deccan Infrastructure and Land Holdings Ltd (DIL) at Chinakondur in Nalgonda district (247 acres); Textile SEZ (DIL), Amangal, Mahbubnagar (101 acres); Biotech SEZ (DIL), Desarlapalli village, Medak (50 acres); Footwear SEZ (DIL), Mamidipally, RR district (100 acres); Footwear SEZ (DIL), Amangal, Mahbubnagar (101 acres); Gems and Jewellery SEZ (DIL), Amangal, Mahbubnagar (40 acres); Light Engineering SEZ (DIL), Bhongir, Nalgonda (250 acres); IT/ITeS SEZ (DIL), Kukatpally, R.R. district (25 acres), IT/ITeS SEZ (DIL), Shamshabad, RR (25 acres); IT/ITES SEZ (DIL), Bachupally, R.R. (50 acres); IT/ITeS SEZ (DIL), Koheda, R.R. (99 acres); IT/ITES SEZ (AP Markfed), Karimnagar (25 acres).
“There is huge demand for land around Hyderabad to set up industries and other units after the TS government launched the single window online approval system TS-iPASS. But a vast amount of land is held by SEZs, which remain non-functional and unused.
We want to cancel these SEZs, take back the land and allot to new industries and units,” said Jupally Krishna Rao, industry minister. Besides SEZs, the government has also sought the Centre to denotify some portion of land in the existing SEZs, which are unutilised in Fab City, Genome Valley and Biotech SEZ.
