Reliance Industries Limited’s (RIL) group company Reliance Haryana SEZ Limited (RHSL) has returned 1,383.68 acres of land in Gurgaon which it had acquired from the Haryana State Industrial & Infrastructure Development Corp (HSIIDC) to set up special economic zones due to revision of strategic priorities.
This formally ends RIL’s proposed plan to develop an SEZ, which was already in the cold storage for years.
RSHL – a joint venture between RIL and Haryana government-owned company HSIIDC – was formed to develop SEZs, model economic townships and other infrastructure facilities in Haryana. HSIIDC has also exited the venture and project, the company said on Monday.
However, RIL would continue with development of a part of the project.
“The model economic township project will continue to be developed in the Industrial Model Township framework on the directly-purchased land. The development work has started on 290 acres of land as an 'industrial colony'. Companies such as Panasonic and Denso have established their manufacturing units in the MET Project,” it said in the statement.
Reliance Ventures Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of RIL, and HSIIDC had formed a JV in 2006 for the development of a large multi-product SEZ in Gurgaon and Jhajjar districts of Haryana.
HSIIDC transferred 1,383.68 acres to RHSL in 2007 to development the project. In 2010, Haryana government approved the development of SEZ over the land transferred by HSIIDC in Gurgaon and development of Model Economic Township (Industrial Model Township Framework) on the directly purchased land.
However, the Indian government withdrew the fiscal concessions of exemptions of MAT of DDT for the SEZs following which RSHL decided to return the 1,383.68 acres in January 2012 as SEZs became unviable with the withdrawal of fiscal incentives.
Earlier this year, the Haryana state cabinet gave approval to return the land to HSIIDC at a price much lower than the price at which it was transferred to them. It also approved the exit of HSIIDC from the project.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
