Mumbai: The government has cleared 36 new special economic zones (SEZs), including six zones by the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu, three by Mukesh Ambani''s Reliance group and one each by Anil Ambani''s Reliance Infocom and the DLF group. Besides, the government gave in-principle approval to nine SEZs.

The board of approval for SEZs (BoA) under the commerce ministry granted approval to Mukesh Ambani-Anand Jain venture, Navi Mumbai SEZ Pvt. Ltd., which plans to set up three zones covering an area of 345 hectares. The BoA, however, deferred a decision on Reliance Industries Ltd''s (RIL) Navi Mumbai multi-product project to July 12.

The SEZ proposals given clearance also included an electronic hardware SEZ by Foxconn India Developers in Tamil Nadu; aviation sector SEZ by GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited in Andhra Pradesh; six IT and 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 per cent FDI.

The BoA considered 53 SEZ proposals. A maximum of 21 SEZs related to information technology, IT-enabled services and electronic hardware, while seven were biotechnology and pharma SEZs, two each of food processing and engineering, and one each of textiles, aviation, gem and jewellery and research and design.

Of the 36 SEZs cleared, ten each would come up in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, while seven will be set up in Haryana, three in Andhra Pradesh, two in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and one each in West Bengal, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. With this, the total number of SEZs granted formal approval has reached 339, of which 126 have so far been notified.