Maharashtra government tweaks SEZ policy, to give kick start to failed projects
The Maharashtra state government has tweaked its Special Economic Zones (SEZ) policy. In its new notification, it says that land can be converted into integrated townships spread over 100 acres. The revised norms were approved in the state cabinet meeting last week.
According to a report by Hindustan Times, this new state government’s revised rule will not just allow unutilised land under notified SEZs, but also land falling within the buffer zones of national parks, under environmentally sensitive zones, under afforestation zones and owned by tribals (post approval from the government), to be included in the ambit of these projects.
But the state government has also said that the development on these lands, will be subject to environment and forest norms. “States that the modification is a bid to “utilise the maximum development potential of land, to increase the supply of affordable houses in the market, to develop smart townships through privatisation without any expenditure to the governments,” the new notification said, reported the leading daily.
The new norm will dilute the condition of contiguous land for such project, if the total land parcel of a developer is more than 200 hectares or 494 acres. In such a case, the project can be segregated as long as every parcel is more than 100 acres and within a 5-km radius.
The new norms will help the SEZ projects which were stuck, especially on the outskirts of the city. A senior bureaucrat told Hindustan Times, “While the policy is being given priority to promote NDA government’s Housing For All promise and creating smart townships, the question is whether such residential enclaves can be successful without corresponding growth in industry or growth centres in the area. Maximum townships will get built around the proposed Navi Mumbai airport where the land has long been brought or under proposed SEZs.”
The SEZ policy was approved in 2004, to set up large planned townships with integrated infrastructure and civic amenities on the outskirts of metros. But this policy didn’t have many takers back then. But the BJP-led government tweaked the policy to offer higher incentive Floor Space Index (FSI) in the range of 1.7 to 2, allow development in non-development zone, agriculture lands to make these townships more feasible.
The developer will also be given ten years to complete the project and build integrated infrastructure including roads, sewage, water supply, social infrastructure like schools, market, hospitals within the area.