Vascon Engineers puts Guj IT SEZ project on hold

With not a single client booking space at its upcoming IT/ITeS special economic zone (SEZ) at Sanathal village near Ahmedabad, Pune-based Vascon Engineers Limited has put the project on hold for time indefinite.

The Rs 350 crore project, which was announced in mid 2008, is being jointly developed by Vascon alongwith Agrawal Estate Organisers of Gujarat and Pristine Properties of Pune.

The companies had bought a 26 acre land for the project which was to be developed in a span of four years.

"We have put the project on hold till we receive any bookings from clients. The project will now only take off once we get clients for the IT SEZ," said R Vasudevan, managing director of Vascon Engineers Limited.

With an aim of constructing two million sq ft of area at the SEZ, Vascon had planned to create 20,000 jobs through the project. Chiefly involved in real estate and construction business, Vascon Engineers had last year diversified into development of IT parks in Pune and had intended to take the work forward by constructing an IT SEZ in Gujarat. Given the initial target of completion, the SEZ was also considered to be the first IT SEZ in the state.

While Vascon's IT SEZ has been put on backburner, DLF has also exited from its SEZ plans in Gujarat.

The Board of Approval (BoA) of the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, has allowed realty major DLF to denotify its SEZ in the state. Earlier, DLF had also planned to set up an IT SEZ near Gandhinagar, which now stand denotified given that the company returns all the sops it had received from the government.

However, the IT department of Gujarat Government has cleared design plans of Ganesh Housing Corporation Limited's IT SEZ which it plans to develop near Ahmedabad. Spanning an area of over 125 acres, the project will be set up at a cost of Rs 700 crore.