Economic Zone at JNPT to focus on pharmaceutical sector: Govt

The foundation stone for the SEZ was laid down by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 as a “Self-Sustainable Integrated Development Project” under Sagarmala, Centre’s flagship programme for port development and modernisation.

Also read: JNPT,Kandla SEZ will help create employment opportunities: Nitin Gadkari

SEZ is a specialised area, identified under Special Economic Zone Act 2005, by Central or state government or any person for manufacturing of goods or rendering services or both.

It provides certain incentives to the trader like duty free import, 100 percent income tax exemption on export income for first five years, 50 percent for five years thereafter and 50 percent of the ploughed back export profit for next five years and single window clearance for central and state level government approval among many other benefits.

The project, that has received investment commitment of approximately Rs 5,000 crore, is spread over 277 hectare (or over 600 acre) and is expected to be fully functional by end of 2018.

“Some operations have already begun at the SEZ but overall completion is expected by end of 2018,” said an official, close to the development.

He said that numerous industries are expected to be set up at the SEZ and will be “subject to government clearances”.

The government is also looking at setting up various support-services at the site that will be required by the industries along with chalking out plans to “market” the zone.

“At this stage, studies have shown that we can set up these (above mentioned) sectors... Next step is to provide all the required facilities and get premium on the land,” said the government official adding, “We are preparing a master plan with a detailed project report (DPR) and are at an advanced stage where we will look at how to market it (SEZ)”.

He further said that the entire idea behind setting up the SEZ was to reduce logistics costs of exporting goods from India leveraging on the storage capacity of JNPT.

“JNPT is one of the premier ports in our country… The largest container-port… Thus, being a container terminal, an export driven SEZ was conceived by us,” he said.

The official said that due to availability of hinterland at JNPT, the ministry considered it best “to use the land for industrial purpose”, helping industries to “spring up” in India.

“Being a SEZ near a port, the logistics cost will reduce significantly which can be a game changer,” he said.

JNPT was set up in 1989 and is one of the largest cargo handling ports for India. It is locate at Navi Mumbai on the western coastline of India and handles around 55 percent of total container handled by all major ports of India.