Over 300 hectares land lying vacant in SEZs in Odisha

More than 300 hectares (ha) of land are still lying vacant within the processing area of some of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Odisha.

Aditya Birla Group owned Hindalco Industries Ltd, Saraf Agencies and stateowned Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco)are the developers yet to utilise full land within their notifiedSEZs.

In Hindalco’s aluminium products SEZ at Lapanga near Sambalpur, 115.70ha land is lying vacant.

Saraf Agencies is yet to utilize 105.20 ha for its  mineral products SEZ at Chhatrapur in Ganjam district. The Kolkata-based developer had proposed to set up a titanium dioxide plant, committing an investment of Rs 1,200 crore. In the first phase, the company had decided to produce 10,000 tonne per annum (tpa) of high titanium slag and 6,000tpa of high purity pig iron.

Similarly, Idco has used 20.44 ha out of a notified area of 106.26 ha within the IT SEZ at Jatni in Khurda district.

According to data compiled by the Board of Approvals of SEZ under Union commerce ministry, developers like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)and Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) have achieved full utilization of land in their notified SEZs in Odisha.

TCS has set up a software development centre in Bhubaneswar that has been notified as an SEZ.

VAL’s1.25 million tonne per annum (mtpa) aluminium smelter at Jharsuguda set up as a sector specific Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Jharsugudais lying idle presently for want of power. Due to non-finalisation of its SEZ policy by the Odisha government, VAL was unable to avail SEZ benefits. The ministry’s data reveals out of 47,803.77 ha area notified in seven SEZ zones- Cochin, Madras, Noida, Vishakhaptnam, Kandla, Falta and Santacruz Electronics Exports Processing Zone, 21,310.03 ha is lying vacant in the processing area.