Mumbai: The government is planning to make access control norms for special economic zones (SEZs) more flexible. Against the prescribed norms of a wall and fencing of a particular height, developers would now be given an option to decide how they want to control access to the zones.

The access control norms were prescribed to monitor the movement of goods, but now they would be modified on demands of the IT industry, senior officials said.

Developers of SEZs, especially infotech SEZs, are opposed to the idea of erecting a wall topped with wire fences which they say would damage the look of their glass and concrete buildings. Also, they argue, putting barricades cannot monitor the export of software.

The promoters of IT SEZs would be given an option to control access to the zones either electronically or physically or by resorting to both. "With new access control and monitoring technologies available in the market it has been decided to make the norms flexible," officials said.

The prescribed norms for access control in the new SEZ rules were copied from those laid down for SEZs that came up earlier. The norms date back to the first SEZ that came up in the country in the 1960s, they point out.