With Mihan special economic zone (Mihan-SEZ) not getting enough investors, local industrialists are sensing an opportunity. Some members of Vidarbha Industries Association (VIA), one of the trade bodies backing the project, have put up a request for allotting land in Mihan to even those units that do not meet the SEZ conditions. They are hoping a desperate Maharashtra Airport Development Company, developer of Mihan, may relent.
At a function organised by the association to felicitate Pravin Darade, who recently took over as the joint managing director of MADC, VIA's executive committee member Rohit Bajaj proposed that some local industries should be given land in the SEZ too. Bajaj said such industries should be non-polluting in nature and must be exporting too but need not be a net foreign exchange earner as SEZ norms stipulate. His view was endorsed by other members.
VIA said their initiative was more to help the state government that has already invested a lot in setting up the Mihan-SEZ but was not getting enough takers. Officials, on the other hand, stated this was not possible given the SEZ norms.
"Giving land to domestic units will ease the burden for MADC that has locked up a sizable amount in the project. A meeting is expected to be held with the MADC's managing director-cum-vice-chairman UPS Madan during his visit to Nagpur from August 28 to 30," Bajaj told TOI. VIA's former president Pravin Tapadia added that almost 50 units would be ready to take up 1 to 4 acres of land each. He added, however, that VIA would like to avoid any controversy about this and was not insisting on the move.
MADC has recently drawn flak from the board of approvals (BoA), the regulating body of SEZs, for allowing sale of flats to outsiders by Reatox Developers' which is coming up with a flat scheme within the non-processing area of the SEZ. On this, the BoA has issued a show-cause notice to the MADC asking why an administrator should not be placed on it. It stresses that the flats should be sold only to persons related to the SEZ's activities.
Sources close to the development say that industrialists were eyeing Mihan-SEZ as a convenient location especially due to it proximity to the airport. There is enough space in the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation's (MIDC) Butibori estate which is also being expanded. The proposal was also put up during the fag-end of the previous vice-chairman-cum-managing director R C Sinha's tenure, said a source.
The Development Commissioner of Mihan-SEZ Ved Prakash said land in a notified SEZ could not be allotted to a unit not fulfilling the norms. Darade said that local industrialists had been offered land outside the SEZ area. For getting land within it, a part of the SEZ may have to be denotified and a decision will have to be taken at higher level.
On this, Tapadia said VIA was keen on SEZ land itself as the other area does not have a proper approach.
At a function organised by the association to felicitate Pravin Darade, who recently took over as the joint managing director of MADC, VIA's executive committee member Rohit Bajaj proposed that some local industries should be given land in the SEZ too. Bajaj said such industries should be non-polluting in nature and must be exporting too but need not be a net foreign exchange earner as SEZ norms stipulate. His view was endorsed by other members.
VIA said their initiative was more to help the state government that has already invested a lot in setting up the Mihan-SEZ but was not getting enough takers. Officials, on the other hand, stated this was not possible given the SEZ norms.
"Giving land to domestic units will ease the burden for MADC that has locked up a sizable amount in the project. A meeting is expected to be held with the MADC's managing director-cum-vice-chairman UPS Madan during his visit to Nagpur from August 28 to 30," Bajaj told TOI. VIA's former president Pravin Tapadia added that almost 50 units would be ready to take up 1 to 4 acres of land each. He added, however, that VIA would like to avoid any controversy about this and was not insisting on the move.
MADC has recently drawn flak from the board of approvals (BoA), the regulating body of SEZs, for allowing sale of flats to outsiders by Reatox Developers' which is coming up with a flat scheme within the non-processing area of the SEZ. On this, the BoA has issued a show-cause notice to the MADC asking why an administrator should not be placed on it. It stresses that the flats should be sold only to persons related to the SEZ's activities.
Sources close to the development say that industrialists were eyeing Mihan-SEZ as a convenient location especially due to it proximity to the airport. There is enough space in the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation's (MIDC) Butibori estate which is also being expanded. The proposal was also put up during the fag-end of the previous vice-chairman-cum-managing director R C Sinha's tenure, said a source.
The Development Commissioner of Mihan-SEZ Ved Prakash said land in a notified SEZ could not be allotted to a unit not fulfilling the norms. Darade said that local industrialists had been offered land outside the SEZ area. For getting land within it, a part of the SEZ may have to be denotified and a decision will have to be taken at higher level.
On this, Tapadia said VIA was keen on SEZ land itself as the other area does not have a proper approach.
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