While the controversy over the Emaar-APIIC land deal rages on,the government continues to be soft towards the promoters of information technology SEZs despite the fact that no new jobs have been generated by them after taking possession of huge extent of land.One of the important conditions laid down by the APIIC for the SEZ promoters was generation of jobs proportionate to the land allocated to them.
Leave alone employment,several private players have even failed to attract investments for the industrial zones, a document prepared recently by the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) on the status of SEZs in the state revealed.Gannavaram IT SEZ,which was opened by chief minister Rosaiah,has not attracted any investment barring the Rs 70 crore spent by the promoter,L&T.
Only 120 persons were recruited in this SEZ,which was allotted 30 acres of land worth Rs 200 crore, said the document.The second phase of the project,which was launched in 2005,is scheduled to be completed only in 2012.While this is so,Vijayawada-Guntur-Tenali-Mangalagiri Urban Development Authority (VGTM-UDA ) is planning to construct an international convention centre in the SEZ.
VGTM-UDA had also entered into an MoU with Parswanath group to develop an IT SEZ near Mangalagiri three years ago.While the developer left the project some time ago,UDA is now inviting tenders to select a new bidder.Nearly 40 acres was earmarked for the IT SEZ whereas not a single job has been generated till now, the document stated. APIIC had secured permissions for four IT SEZs in Visakhapatnam district alone for which nearly 200 acres of land worth Rs 1,500 crore had been handed over to the private players.The deadline for completing all these projects is fast approaching,but the promoters of at least two projects at Madhurawada have not even prepared the master plan till now, APIIC officials pointed out. For Gambheeram IT SEZ,APIIC had allotted 50 acres to the promoter but precious little was done to develop the land leave alone invite investments.Many of the land allottees are not pumping funds into the project with an intention to convert the entire land into a real estate venture, sources said.In Rangareddy IT SEZs,not a single job has been created so far though land was allotted to the promoters long ago. Stunningly,the government had transferred the land ownership to Apache in industrial SEZ in Nellore district following its request that it should be given a free hand as it had provided at least half of the promised jobs of 10,000.The original agreement was to transfer 300 acres of land to Apache only after it provided jobs to 10,000 locals.By violating the rules,precious land worth over Rs 1,000 crore was handed over to the multinational, sources revealed. Comment : A case in point is the 16 Acre Wipro SEZ in Gopanapalli. Its one and a half year since the building was completed. But its still not operational. Keyword Tags Hyderabad News,SEZ Hyderabad, IT SEZ
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