Mumbai: The center has given approval to 44 more special economic zones, taking the total applications so far approved formally to 236 and those with in-principle approval to 169.

The Board of Approvals (BoA) of the commerce ministry also notified the list of activities, related to social infrastructure, permitted inside the SEZs.

While the ministry deleted golf courses from the list of authorised operations, it made it clear that the developers would be free to build power plants, roads, water treatment plant and other necessary facilities.

The board gave formal clearances to 24 proposals and in-principle nod to 20 others. This includes the SEZ proposals of Wockhardt, Parsvnath Developers and Suncity, entailing an overall investment of over Rs 40,000 crore.

Other proposals cleared include heart surgeon Naresh Trehan-promoted Global Health Private Limited's biotech SEZ in Gurgaon, Wockhardt's pharma SEZ in Maharashtra, Suncity Haryana SEZ Developers' IT SEZ and Ansal Properties' IT SEZ both in Haryana.

Commerce secretary G K Pillai said Suncity's IT SEZ envisaged an investment of Rs811 crore and would provide employment to 24,000 people. Besides, he said, the company had been given in-principle nod for a 3,000 hectare multi-product SEZ near Ambala that entailed an investment of about Rs16,000 crore.

Bentex's Rs8,100 crore multi-services SEZ, spread over 168 hectares in Haryana and Kandla Port Trust's Rs7,300-crore port-based SEZ in Gujarat were among the other proposals cleared.

While Bentex already owned the required land in the state, Suncity was acquiring land directly from the owners without the state government's intervention, Pillai said.

In-principle approvals had been given to a free trade warehousing zone in Greater Noida, a multi-product zone in Karnataka and Shapoor Pallonji Group's IT SEZ near Pune. He said the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli would get its first SEZ, with the board giving in-principle clearance to Alok Infrastructure Private Limited's textile SEZ.

"The BoA considered a total of 92 proposals from Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Formal approval was given to 24 cases, while 20 proposals were given in-principle clearance," Pillai said.