This article was updated on June 18, 2019.
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Tamil Nadu has the maximum numbers of operational SEZ.
SEZ – Special Economic Zone – is a geographical region that has more liberal economic laws as compared to the country’s domestic laws. India was one of the first in Asia to recognize the effectiveness of the export processing zone model to promote exports with the setting up of Asia’s first such zone in Kandla in 1965. Indian Parliament passed the Special Economic Zones Act in 2005 (SEZs Act, 2005) and Special Economic Zones Rules in 2006 (SEZs Rules, 2006). There were 7 Central Government SEZs set up prior to the enactment of SEZs Act 2005 – Kandla, Mumbai, Noida, Chennai, Kochi, Falta (West Bengal) and Visakhapatnam. Additionally, there were 11 other SEZs set up by state governments/private sector prior to enactment of SEZs Act 2005.
SEZs Act 2005 envisages a key role for the state governments in export promotion and creation of special infrastructure. A single window SEZ approval mechanism has been provided. Consequently, after the enactment of SEZs Act 2005, 420 more SEZs have been approved, while 355 have been notified under the Act, thus taking the total number of operational SEZs in India to 231 as on March 31, 2019 (as per Ministry of Commerce and Industry data).
Tamil Nadu has the maximum number of operational SEZs –40 in all. Out of these, Chennai was one of the 7 SEZs set up by the Central Government prior to the enactment of SEZs Act 2005, whereas 4 other SEZs were set up by the state government/private sector prior to enactment of SEZs Act 2005. After the enactment, 35 more operational SEZs have been notified under SEZs Act 2005.
The state of Telangana is second to Tamil Nadu in terms of having the maximum number of SEZs. The state has 57 notified SEZs, out of which 29 SEZs are functioning. All these SEZs were set up by the state government.
Karnataka comes at third place in the list of maximum number of SEZs. There are 31 operational SEZs in the state mostly IT/ ITES. In fact, all of them have been set up after 2005.
Maharashtra is the next in the list. Apart from SEEPZ-Mumbai, which was set up by the Central Government prior to enactment of SEZs Act 2005, there are 29 more operational SEZs in Maharashtra that has been notified under SEZs Act 2005.
