New Kolkata International Airport Pictures

Like our postings on the New Chennai International Airport (Pictures) and the more recently updated Updated Picture of the New Chennai International Airport Terminal we are bringing you a first look at some Kolkata Airport pictures. The Kolkata airport is due for completion in 2010.

The Airports authority of India announced that RMJM, supported by Sikka Associates, is the winner of the international design competition for the new Domestic Terminal in Kolkata. An independent jury selected the design against a notable list of competitors including Airports de Paris and HOK.

The 40,000m first phase of the new airport is designed to accommodate a peak passenger flow of 1800 per hour, while a second design phase will approximately double those figures.

RMJM worked closely from the outset of the project with the associated landscape designers at STRATA to ensure a fully integrated concept that revolves around an abstract reference to the writing of Rabindranath Tagore of Bengal. The graphic nature of his writing is visible as large scale patterns etched on to the underside of the main roof as well as landscaped across the forecourt ground. A number of mature trees are retained as a striking counterpoint to the linearity of the building's form. In developing the buildng shape and in the detail design of its skin RMJM ensured that the facility reaches the highest sustainability international standards. Natural day lighting is maximized while keeping cooling systems to a minimum. The form of the roof is also devised to harvest rainwater for landscape irrigation.

(Click to Enlarge)

This Picture Courtesy of contributor SunCity

This Picture Courtesy of contributor SunCity (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

"We have drawn up ambitious plans to modernise these two airports. Designs of new terminal buildings and expansion of existing ones have already been approved for both the airports," AAI Chairman K Ramalingam said at a seminar on air route development here.

AAI has already appointed consultants for the modernisation project, sources said. The consultant for Kolkata airport modernization is a consortium which Indian firms partnering with Hong Kong's RMJM and a Paris-based firm ADPI.

After modernisation, Kolkata airport's passenger handling capacity will rise from 5.4 million passengers annually to 20 million by 2010. This will be sufficient for handling passengers till 2015-16. Work on nine domestic bays, three cargo bays and 11 additional parking bays has already started along with construction of the new terminal building.

In addition, a new ATC control tower is being built and automation being introduced in air traffic management and navigation. The new terminal building will have an area of around 180,000 sq metres. 104 check-in counters, 44 immigration counters, 25 security gates, five conveyor belts and 15 aerobridges will be the other features of the airport post development.

It will also get an inline baggage system which will make it unnecessary for the passenger to go for pre-check through x-ray machines. – Source The Business Standard

Find the New Kolkata International Airport High Resolution Pictures Here

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India grants more SEZ Approvals

By Dhruva Jyoti Chowdhury

Kolkata, India: To consider proposals pertaining to the Special Economic Zones (SEZs), the The Board of Approval (BOA) of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) met recently. The Board also approved other miscellaneous requests pertaining to SEZs. In this meeting, 53 applications for setting up SEZs were considered and 36 Formal approvals and 9 In-principle approvals were granted.

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Prominent among the Formal approvals are: Electronic Hardware SEZ by Foxconn India Developers Private Limited in Tamil Nadu; Aviation Sector SEZ by GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited in Andhra Pradesh; One IT/ITES SEZ and one Gem and Jewellery SEZ by Omnibus Industrial Development Corporation of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli; Three SEZs for Biotechnology, Light Engineering and Pharmaceuticals by Navi Mumbai SEZ Private Limited in Maharashtra; IT/ITES SEZ by Reliance Infocom Infrastructure Private Limited in Maharashtra and six IT/ITES SEZs by Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu in various Districts of Tamil Nadu and MAS Fabrics Textile SEZ in Andhra Pradesh which is being developed with 100% FDI.

Prominent In principle approvals granted are : Electronics and Electrical SEZ, Engineering Equipment & Components SEZ and a Multi Product SEZ by TIDCO in Tamil Nadu; Multi product SEZ by DLF Limited in Rajasthan; Aerospace related industries SEZ by KIADB in Karnataka.

With this set of approvals, the total number of SEZs granted formal approval is 339 i.e. 339 SEZs are there with land and of these 126 have so far been notified. Investment of 35145 Crores has taken place so far and current employment in new SEZs is about 33000 persons. It is expected that by end of the year additional employment in the new SEZs would cross 100,000.

The Chairman of BOA Shri G.K.Pillai, apprised the Members of the Board that the Central Government has issued certain instructions with regard to approval of SEZs and the land acquisition for SEZs and the Chief Secretaries of all the State Governments have been informed that the State Governments would undertake acquisition of land for SEZs only when 100% of the owners give consent. The State Government representatives were informed that if any proposal for compulsorily acquired land comes up, the same would not be notified as SEZ. It was also advised that to the extent possible, double crop and multiple crop lands should not be acquired.

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KOLKATA REAL ESTATE : More Supply - Less Demand

by Dhruva Jyoti Chowdhury, Kolkata, India

While the property prices are moving at a great pace across the major cities in the country, Kolkata has also felt the heat. Property prices are up by 10 – 35 per cent at select areas due to demand-supply mismatch. What is more, even up market apartments are being lapped up in quick succession due to vibrant economy and the increase in disposable income.

Among the areas undergoing swift real estate development in and around the city, specific mention must be made about Mayfair Road, Lansdowne, Loudon Street, Gurusaday Road, Ballygunge circular road and the Theatre Road. Residential property prices moved not less than by 10 per cent across all markets, if the realtors are to be believed..

The appreciation is steep in areas like Alipore by 36 per cent last year, 57 per cent in EM bypass, 33 per cent on Jessore Road, 20 per cent in Gariahat and Rashbehari. Even entry-level investors are handsomely rewarded if one wants to enter at the green field stage and opts to quit at the implementation stage. However, most of the demand is end user driven and investors are yet to plunge into the city.

Incidentally, Kolkata is a shining example where private-public model has been working effectively. Recently ICRA, premier rating agency, has accorded the highest published rating RT2 plus to Hiland Park Phase II which translates into strong project ever granted to a real estate developer in the country.

The commercial property market is predominantly driven by IT and ITES sector and the organized retail formats. In 2005, aggregate office segment absorption of approximately 5.5 lakh sq. ft. has been reported with a majority of the demand in suburban locations of sector V, Salt Lake and New Town Rajarhat. However, with a few IT oriented development projects maturing, rentals in Sector V have remained stable at Rs. 34-35 per sq. ft. per month.

According to Cushman & Wakefield, property consultants, the real estate sector is expected to witness increased activity in the short to medium term. While demand is expected to improve, quality stock will gradually enter the market (in Sector V and Rajarhat) over the next 6-18 months. Several national level developers have acquired land to tap the expected IT/ ITES demand. Technology firms are anticipated to provide employment to approximately 14,000 people translating into a real estate opportunity of around 1.10 million sq. ft.

Availability of skilled professionals at relatively lower costs compared to other metros, low attrition rates, stable power supply and proactive state government are instrumental in driving the national developers to Kolkata.

A Study in New India's Architecture

Below we have obtained the latest renderings and photos of Real Estate projects across India including Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai. This study highligts how quickly India's real estate industry is adopting world class architecture. Click on the speaker icon in the box below to play some background music.

DLF shares draw premium in grey market

The grey market for the initial public offering (IPO) of real-estate major, DLF has become active following announcement of the dates and price band by the Delhi-headquartered company yesterday. The shares of DLF command an unofficial premium of Rs 26-28 a share in Ahmedabad, which is considered as the most active centre for grey market transactions.

The K P Singh-promoted DLF is raising Rs 9,600-odd crore through the IPO. The shares, with a face value of Rs 2 each, would be issued in the price band of Rs 500 and Rs 550.

The grey market is the unofficial market for IPOs and the premium or discounts indicate the level of retail interest in the public issue. It is also considered as an unofficial price discovery mechanism before the listing.

The unofficial premium for DLF in the grey market is lower, in absolute terms, compared with the recent IPOs such as ICRA Mindtree Consulting, Advanta and Global Broadcast Network, where the prices doubled in the first few days after listing. The share prices of ICRA and Global Broadcast Network doubled on the listing day itself.

The grey market premium of Rs 26-28 a share is not small, as the size of the DLF issue is large at 17.5 crore equity shares. The premium indicates that market players expect the retail portion of the DLF offer to be fully subscribed or even subscribed by two times, said a broker who did not want to be quoted as grey market is not legal.

The returns from the grey market are calculated in terms of money invested and the expected allotment of shares. For instance, if a retail investor puts in Rs 1,00,000 in the IPO application, he/she will get 100 to 200 shares at the lower end of the price band. A premium of Rs 26-28 assures the investor a return of 3-6 per cent within a time-frame of a month, the broker explains. All the profit (or loss) would be borne by the person who pays the premium.

The grey market exists in tier-two cities and areas where the investor population is sizeable, though such deals are not legally allowed. The market is vibrant in Ahmedabad, Unjha, Kolkata and some other cities.

The normal settlement in the grey market is trust-based and the brokers have the backing of big brokers who may be based in Kolkata or Mumbai. This market also offers multiple products.

The premiums for the IPOs are forward deals. There is also a product called koshtak. This product offers interest rates on the price paid per application form, depending on the demand for shares. The interest rates are paid for applying for the issue. The allotment and post-listing premium goes to the person who pays the interest rates.

The interest amount or price per application form for the DLF issue ranges between Rs 2,700 and Rs 2,900 for an application worth Rs 1 lakh.

There is a third product known as “subject to.” The retail investors in most of the IPOs, follow the HNIs (high networth individuals) and QIBs (qualified institutional buyers). Some brokers, acting on behalf of promoters, assure certain returns to high networth investors and if the listing price does not give the assured returns, the broker concerned makes good the returns assured.

Source: Business Standard

Chennai Tops Real Estate

By Dhruva Jyoti Chowdhury

Kolkata, India: In the last decade, when the realty all over the country witnessed a major boom, the price rise of land in Chennai did not rise as sharply as they did in the other metros. That reputation, of being a relatively sober market, has taken a U turn now.

The realtors believe that nearly 1,000 medium and large residential housing projects are coming up within a short span and importantly the buoyant interest rates on housing loans have not dampened the market spirit. That’s the reason for which developers are now occupying even the industrial wasteland which extends from the northern to the western part of Chennai.

SSI Limited has acquired one of the oldest industrial landmarks of Chennai, the Buckingham and Carnatic Mills in Perambur, for a real estate project. SSI is building 5,000 apartments on a 70-acre plot. The 1,000 crore rupees project, with landscaped grounds is projected to change the face of the area which was once a working class suburb. Further SSI expects to build 1,000 apartments, priced between Rs.30 lakhs and Rs.40 lakhs, every year for the next five years. Integrated townships along the GST Road, on the Tambaram-Velachery Road, at Valasaravakkam, Sriperumbudur, Vandalur and at Siruseri is also on the planning list of SSI.

Added to this is the government's move to open up Foreign Direct Investment in the sector. Moreover, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has approved guidelines for the Real Estate Mutual Fund, a scheme to facilitate investments in real estate property which will cause prices to spiral out of control.

Growing economy, participation of foreign investors, younger age groups dominating in population and growth of service sectors have made a positive impact on the scenario of Chennai properties. A large number of NRIs have also contributed in the real estate in Chennai. In order to provide a further impetus, both the Centre and the State government has coughed up 200 crore rupees in initiating building a six lane Chennai bypass Phase II, a cloverleaf structure close to the airport that will directly connect the city to different National Highways by 2008.

The average age of prospective clients now has dropped to 28-35 years as compared to about a decade ago when planning to purchase a house was done on the verge of retirement from services. For travelers who combine business and leisure several up-market hotels have been built in recent years. Feeling the heat, international players such as Courtyard Marriott, Radisson, Hilton and Le Royal Meridien have a visible presence in Chennai while another cluster of international hotels are in the queue.

The rates of land being acquired vary between considerable ranges. The land on the lower side consisting of areas in Mogappair East and West is between 1500 to 1700 hundred rupees per sq.ft while the higher side is 3500- 5000 rupees per sq. ft. in areas like Besant Nagar, Nungambakkam and Mylapore.

Feeling the heat Hiranandani group a Mumbai based builder has already invested more than 2000 Crore in the last few months. Besides the ETA group, DLF and several others have already crossed the 400 Crore mark in the city. This elite group includes Chennai-based realty developer Arihant Foundations in joint venture with J P Morgan. Jain Housing and Constructions Limited have more than 3,000 dwelling units covering more than 2 million sq ft. Its current projects involve another 2.5 million sq ft apart from the other national players in realty including Ansal Properties and Infrastructure limited, K. Raheja Group, Bengal Ambuja Housing Development Limited Prestige Group.

The Non-Resident Indians are the most important property buyers in the city. This NRI constitutes the core of the ‘high value’ market in the real estate sector.

This boom is also paving way for the most ultra modern facilities in every nook and corner of the entire city. The developers also seem to be keen on the fact that the owners should get world class amenities and a quality of life that would be virtually impossible in an ‘independent house’. Swimming pools, penthouses, round-the-clock security, landscaped gardens, play areas for children, ATM-banking facility, open-air theatre, shopping arcade, swimming pools and health clubs, ATM-banking facility, open-air theatre, shopping arcade, play areas, swimming pools and health clubs since most of the projects are located on the outskirts, every need of the residents had to be met in order to make it a self-contained township.

Flats are not the only kind of dwelling units coming up in Chennai. For those who have high levels of disposable income, there are builders and promoters who offer "independent" houses, different from the bungalows of yesteryear. For instance, Isha Homes offers middle-class villas with all facilities. The project, located near the nerve-centre of the IT corridor, provides dedicated Internet connections, apart from a common sewage plant, black-topped roads and other facilities on the campus.

Ravichandran, a civil engineer, started his business in 1997 by building in the range of about 25,000-30,000 sq ft per project. In contrast, True Value Homes' Park Villa projects, a "premium project launched two years ago at Perungudi close to the IT corridor is spread over more than 5.25 acres. It consists of 288 dwelling units. Built adhering to the principles of Vaasthu Sastra, the project has virtually created a mini township.

It is now building residential complexes of 1 million sq ft. land prices in the area shot up from Rs.5 lakhs an acre to Rs.50 lakhs an acre since the past project was completed. True Value Homes, like other big property developers, is building an IT Park at MRC Nagar with a capacity of 4 lakh sq ft. The company is also planning a 100-acre satellite township near Tambaram. Experts predict that that the building activity will soon reach Mahabalipuram, about 60 kilometres from Chennai.

Looking at the vast potential of the Chennai market, The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) plans to implement a `single window' system for processing building plan applications quickly. The idea is to provide a ‘one-stop shop’ for all the approvals for real estate. Even the State government is not lagging in poking its nose to fill up their empty coffers. Recent reports have indicated that Government acquired about 7,000 acres for the establishment of a satellite town outside Chennai estimated over 30,000 acres.

Presently, an apartment in Velchari, Chennai with 28800 sq ft is costing around 10,08,00,000 rupees. These are 2 And 3 Bedrooms with Power Back-up, Lift, Rain Water Harvesting, Three Phase Power Supply, Stilt +Four Floors and Covered Car Parking. A 3 Bedroom deluxe apartment in Harrington Road with 1776 sq ft, is costing around 4500 rupees per sq ft. The apartment consists of large sit out, building with swimming pool, 24 hrs security, covered car park, on the sixth floor (not the top floor).

Thirunmiyur Apartment in Valmiki Nagar is build on 1213 sq ft and is a 2 Bedroom flat on the 1st floor, with a very large bathroom, apartment complex built on 13.8 grounds (33,317sft). Very near to the sea beach is one of the best location of Valmiki Nagar, as per the builders opine. The apartment is being offered for 56 lakh.

Even the commercial spaces are not lagging far behind in this money race. A 900 sq ft basement office space in a good commercial complex in Nelson on Manikam Road is being offered for about 45 lakhs rupees. Near Arumbakkam Spencer's Daily Total 3,795sft land area with 2,876sft Bungalow, 4 Bedroom with servants quarters well designed, in good condition is available for. 1.60 Crores. (Total price for Land and Building).

A 2000 sq ft new apartment for Sale in Alwarpet with 3 bedrooms with balcony in every room, separate dining and drawing room is being offered for about 9000 rupees per sq ft. At present the total area under development is around 32.5 million sq. ft.

Ascendas Industrial Park 1.0 million sq. ft. Mahindra Industrial Park 0.2 million sq. ft. Ambattur 0.2 million sq. ft. City 7.3 million sq. ft. Ramavaram 3.5 million sq. ft. Old Mahabalipuram Road 19.3 million sq. ft.

Areas and Land being developed for Real Estate, at present

After labeling all pre-IPO investment or private placement to foreign institutional investors (FII) in real estate companies as FDI, the government has now decided to bar real estate companies from issuing depository receipts (ADRs or GDRs). The logic of the move is simple. All foreign investment through GDRs and ADRs is to be treated as FDI, which is subject to a three-year lock-in, in the case of real estate companies. A host of restrictions including minimum project size in terms of area and a lock-in period were imposed to keep out speculative foreign capital. They did not take into account the fact that real estate companies could be listed. The FDI norms for the real estate sector framed in 2005 were clearly designed for the simplistic situation of single projects from unlisted companies hence the government is becoming entangled in micro regulation.

DLF gets IPO nod

By Dhruva Jyoti Chowdhury Kolkata, India: The real estate giant are now coming up with a bang. DLF has got the nod from Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for its Initial Public Offering (IPO), which is expected to raise a record Rs 13,600 crore.

If all goes well, DLF’s market capitalisation is expected to be around Rs 1,05,00 crore, equivalent to $25 billion, which will place DLF at seventh position in market capitalization rankings in the world. And after the IPO, DLF Universal’s promoter KP Singh will be among the richest Indians.

The approval, which will make a way for the DLF plan to put its fist on the capital market. It is worthwhile to mention here that the company had filed a new prospectus in January this year after its first attempt came to a stand still due to certain objections over the complaints by the minority shareholders'.

DLF owned by KP Singh proposes to enter the capital market with a public issue of 17.5 crore equity shares of Rs 2 each. The post-issue dilution would be over 10% of the equity capital of DLF. While he will continue to own 87.5 per cent stake in the company. "The company could raise more than or equal to Rs 13,600 crore," a company official had said in January. The fund would be deployed to meet construction cost, land acquisition and repayment of debt.

When asked when the issue would open, the company official said: "We are on the job." Merchant bankers, however, said it would take at least a month as the issue size is big. In its second attempt, the DLF plans to raise about Rs 13,600 crore but with lesser shares being offered through the IPO, reflecting the company's increased valuation over last year. DLF last year, proposed to offer 20.2 crore-equity shares, but the prospectus containing that offer was withdrawn.

Despite the severe beating, reality stocks have taken in the secondary market, the price band for the DLF issue was expected to be between Rs 550 and Rs 600 a share, said an investment banker on the condition of anonymity. As the face value of the equity is Rs 2, according to SEBI guidelines, the issue cannot be priced less than Rs 500 a share. “Since the minimum price cannot be below Rs 500, the price band is expected to be at around Rs 550-600, and the final price could be at the upper limit,” said the banker.

DLF executive claimed the Reserve Bank of India had allowed foreign institutional investors (FIIs) to invest in the company’s IPO, and the real estate major was expecting good response from institutional investors, including mutual funds, banks and insurance companies. Depending upon the success of the DLF issue, investment bankers said, another realty company, Omaxe, could enter the market.

DLF will use its IPO proceeds in part to acquire land, complete on going projects and retire debts. The company's vice chairman Rajiv Singh says that land acquisition programme will cost Rs 6,500 crore (Rs 65 billion), while the completion of on-going projects will cost about Rs 3,100 crore (Rs 31 billion). The company, at present, has loans worth Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion).

DLF Vice Chairman Rajiv Singh said that the IPO proceeds will be utilized for land acquisition, which will cost about Rs 6,500 crore and the DLF hopes to complete the construction of some on-going projects, which will take about Rs 3100 crore within a few months from now.

Singh further said that DLF retains the rights to prepay loans that the company holds to the extent of about Rs 4,000 crore. This is an overall statement of objectives. It will be decided after the exact issue size is finalized. The deployment will be decided thereafter. Principally the money is for acquisition and for completion of our projects.

When asked about the Special Economic Zones three special economic zones, which are multi-product ones in Ludhiana, Amritsar and Manesar, Singh said that. DLF have received approval to set up four special economic zones of a very large size. Three are going to be a multi purpose special economic zone and one is going to be a collection of product specific zones in Amritsar.

According to Singh, as far as the investment programme goes, no exact number is quantified as yet. The land acquisition proceedings still need to take place. DLF do estimate the total investments processing would be of Rs 40,000-50,000 crore (Rs 400-500 billion). But DLF's investment in this would be restricted to much smaller amount, which will be known after the projects are specifically conceptualized.

The start is due in Amritsar not in Ludhiana. Amrtisar is the first one, which will get off the block. We do hope that we will be able to start something physically on the ground in a few months time. We should be up and running in terms of marketing.

The DLF is also targeting 100-125 hotels in the next five-eight years while some in the next few months. But Vijay Singh declined to comment on them and said that future forecast at this juncture in an IPO process is something business hotels should be the first ones to take off. But said that substantial sites for the location of such hotels. As and when our partnership gets finalized, we will implement these projects rapidly. Some of them are going to be independent sites and many of them are going to be co-located with the other development projects of the company, whether in retail space or in IT park space.

Singh further added that there has been some kind of trouble between the Delhi Development Authority as well as the Delhi high court regarding the joint venture of the company with Indiabulls which is just a co-investment into a particular project.

When asked about the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance for the FIIs to come into the pre-IPO placement, Singh said that in pre-IPO placement, we are not contemplating any FIIs. The pre-IPO placement will only be for the domestic investors and institutions. We may be able to give you some details about this in a few days time. Only one thing I can say is, unfortunately, we are constrained in terms of making a projection at this moment in the IPO process.

Destination India: Perfect for FDI

By Dhruva Jyoti Chowdhury

Kolkata, India: If you are an Investor in India, not just the mushrooming IT, companies InfoTech, healthcare services telecom, BPO or the real estate, you can put your hard earned money on almost everything to get better gains and good returns. Recently, a study conducted by the University of Tennessee, School of Information Services, USA, A more definite edge for the Indian techie lies in the conference room has been confirmed. Indian workers tend to have shorter meetings with fewer people than their US counterparts, says a study. The average US tech professional meeting lasted 55 minutes, compared to 47 minutes in India. More telling, and the real time-waster, was that US meetings averaged eight people compared to five in India. “Anecdotally, it seemed Indians were more focused. US firms tend to try involving everyone in the hope this would spur an innovative thought,” said Assistant Professor Suzie Allard associated with the study. Not only that, even the intra-office communication also showed slight differences. US workers were much more likely to use emails and less likely to communicate verbally. Allard said this difference needed more investigation. US researchers did note how many Western-educated Indians spoke of returning home or, if their children were studying overseas, their offspring indicating an intention to return because the “lifestyle tradeoff” was increasingly tilted in favour of India. The study also suggests that the Indian workers are trained to sleep only on national holidays but US workers spend half their day in meetings and are more likely to take work home. The study covered the work practices of over 100 engineers and tech professionals in six firms in India and the US that dealt in InfoTech, healthcare services and telecom sectors. The study, overseen by Professor Carol Tenopir, focused on innovators in cutting-edge fields. US workers were more than twice as likely to be doing something else during such meetings – reading emails, surfing the net. Another was that US workers often complained they needed to take their work home. “Indian workers rarely said anything about that. They seemed to get a lot more done at office,” said Allard. “US workers seemed to spend a lot of time doing other things and find it hard to get continuous work time.” Indian meetings tend to be lead by one individual. “Everyone got to speak, but there was a big leader culture,” said a researcher. “There was more variety in US meetings with leadership often being diffused across several people.” Indian workers also used information resources in their office more than their US counterparts. “Indian engineers were more likely to talk about using such resources than Americans,” says Allard. She suspects this is a function of corporate culture, with Indian firms more interested in training workers on how to use such resources.

India slides back on SEZ

By Dhruva Jyoti Chowdhury Kolkata, India: Land is a life long asset to the poor rural people an immovable asset that never undergoes depreciation. The plan of the government to withdraw intervention from this process of land acquisition may bring even worse affect for the society. Since India cannot afford to invest a huge amount of money to develop the infrastructure of the whole India, setting up Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is the only viable option to match Chinese economic development to attract Foreign investment as well as from the residential industrial community. But due to lack of home work to built up infrastructural facilities for the land owners the Indian Government has gone on the back foot is at present is moving at a snails pace in this regard. The Chinese started their liberalization and industrialization with the formation of SEZs in late 70s and early 80s. But in india, the liberalisation process started after about a decade from China. But still the land acquisition process for the SEZs still a dream for the Government as hasty decisions and lack of home work pre acquisition of land for setting up SEZ are turning into a source of societal conflicts and revolts. The basic concept of the Indian government is to promote Special Economic Zone in India to generate additional economic activity, promote exports, promote investments, create employment opportunities and develop infrastructural facilities.

A 19 member inter-ministerial SEZ Board of Approval (BoA) has also been formed as a single window SEZ approval mechanism. Very recently, the BoA has put a limit on the maximum land acquisition by a SEZ project to 5000 hectare. It has also laid down compulsory export business for such projects. Apart from this, it has been made mandatory to provide employment to at least one member of the displaced land owner’s family. However, these Suez’s are expected to generate 50,000 direct jobs by the end of financial year 2007-2008. Currently, more than one lakh seventy thousand people are employed in these SEZ’s, 40% of which are women. As a matter of fact, SEZ is being incorporated 15 years after the start of liberalization process. Comparing China, the process of acquiring land and laying down infrastructure was a slow process. The Government convinced the land owners how beneficial it will be for the development of the country. The Chinese Government had a Master Plan and an economic framework on how to build and proceed with SEZs, most probably inspired by the success of Asian Trading Hub, Hong Kong. The Dragons started building massive cities for manufacturing and industrialization under their SEZ framework. Dragons also rolled out red carpet for foreign companies to build and operate from these SEZs. Now the question arises how the Government wants to facilitate the Indian and Foreign companies through SEZs ? Well, the answer is that lots of incentives are being provided to the businesses operating under SEZ’s, some of which are duty free imports or domestic procurement of goods for development, operation and maintenance of SEZ units, exemption from minimum alternate tax, exemption from central sales tax, 100% IT exemption for the first 5 years, 50% during the next 5 years and 50% of the ploughed back export profit for the next 5 years. But the real answer is quite different from the above. These mega projects ask for hundreds and hundreds hectare of land which are normally bought from respective rural land owners at a rate fixed by the government. In the past too, people have given away their land much below the then market price. All those projects could not also generate expected level of employment for the local residents due to their financial structure and lack of any formal training. Witnessing this situation, the group of ministers has come out with a provision that will ensure direct dealings between the farmers and the land acquirers. There is also a fair chance of overlooking the issues and problems of the weaker section of the country regarding acquisition of land for setting up Special Economic zones as after ‘massacre’ in Nandigram in West Bengal, the Government is fearing of violent protests all over the country against the forcible acquisition of fertile agricultural land which will lead to penury for the landless farmers Even the journalists were not spared by the hooliganism by the ruling party cadre but even by the police force. Few incidents in the past and current, like Nandigram incident have brought a great deal of uncertainty in implementation of SEZ plans towards industrialization of the nation, where many people died in police firing while opposing the acquisition of their land for a proposed SEZ by a Indonesian company, The Salem Group. The West Bengal government's decision to put on hold the proposed special economic zone at Nandigram has sent the Orissa government on the back foot forcing the Naveen Patnaik government to cancel a proposed project by the Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) at Kalinga Nagar. The state-owned IDCO had earlier proposed to establish a sector specific metallurgical-based engineering and downstream industry for manufacturing stainless steel spread over 250 acre at Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex The cancellation took place in order to avoid any violence over land acquisition which will profusely hold up many foreign companies who have already been invited for setting up industry in Orrisa. Though the Orissa government does not want to express its apprehensions over the SEZ issue, ruling BJD-BJP alliance insiders admitted that the administration does not want to have a repeat of the Kalinga Nagar blood spill. The state government has so far received proposals for setting up 17 SEZs. The center has announced hundreds of SEZ plans all across the nation, but their future seems to be uncertain. Recently, another such social revolt has been registered in the state of Maharashtra, where Reliance Group has declared to acquire 10,000 (approx) hectare of land for building up two mega SEZ projects.

Dr. J J Irani, former CMD of Tata Steel and currently one of the powerful Directors on Tata Son's is of the opinion, "India should also go slowly like China has done".

Mohandas Pai, Executive Director, Infosys Technologies said,"We should look at entire districts, with a port and a hinterland for SEZ. We should make large-scale investments in that so there is synergy, and we should ensure that manufacturing has priority, followed by services, but the vision has to be much larger. The way it is today, the vision is too myopic, and too small, and I am afraid we will not get the benefit that China did".