Synefra Engineering and Construction Limited to enter infrastructure development

Synefra was earlier known as Suzlon infrastructure limited, with J R Tanti as the managing director. Although Synefra and Suzlon are managed by the same family Tantis, the investment and board of the companies are separate.

Synefra engineering and construction limited, which was till now mainly involved in setting up various projects for Suzlon energy limited, in now aggressively looking beyond for business, mainly related to infrastructure development like ports, roads and industrial infrastructure.

The company has already developed three special economic zones in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat

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Organic farming policy for Maharashtra soon

State agriculture minister Balasaheb Thorat said that the state's organic farming policy will be drafted in three months time.

The state currently has about 6.5 lakh hectares of land under organic farming, which the government is planning to increase up to 20 lakh hectares in next five years. Highlighting the objective of the policy, he said, "the agriculture department intends to bring more and more land under organic farming. It is a low-cost option so monetary benefits for farmers are greater."

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Konkan Bachao Samiti irked with land acquisition for power projects in Konkan

Sulbha Brahme, senior social activist on Friday criticised the Union and state governments for ignoring the villagers' welfare by pushing the atomic and thermal power projects in Konkan. Addressing a press conferene here, Brahme maintained that the Konkan Bachao Samiti (KBS) is going to continue with its agitation against the state government's land acquisition.

According to the documents shared by the Samiti, the government has planned to set up power plants in Shahapur (dist. Raigad), Dhopave, Bhopan, Jaigad and Ranpar (all in dist. Ratnagiri), Munge and Dhakore (dist. Sindhudurga). "Soon after the code of conduct was revoked, government officials started the work of acquiring more land in these villages," she said.

"The combined power generation capacity of these projects is said to be around 18,100 Mega-Watts. Generating this much energy will need huge amounts of coal, uranium and other hazardous materials that would contaminate the land, air and water in these areas," Brahme said.

As per the figures released by the government in 2008, the state has the capacity to generate 17,500 MW of power, whereas the electricity generated is only 13,575 MW, she said.

The existing thermal power projects at Parali, Paras, Khaparkheda, Bhusaval and Chandrapur are yet to be utilised to their optimum capacity. Electricity leakage should be checked to meet the state's power needs better, Brahme said.

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MIDC starts process for engineering, textile SEZs near Satara and Solapur

The state's nodal agency for infrastructure development, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) has set on roll the process for development of sector-specific Special Economic Zones (SEZs) at Phaltan in the neighbouring Satara and Chincholi in Solapur for engineering and textile units, respectively.

The move forms part of MIDC's plan to raise 22 of the 125 SEZs, which are in different stages of planning and development in the state. "Five of these 22 SEZs will be developed solely by MIDC," said P V Deshpande, MIDC's associate architect (SEZ), while speaking to TOI on Thursday. The remaining 17 have been planned in partnership with private developers.

Deshpande said, "Our (MIDC) primary mandate is developing and selling industrial plots and hence we have restricted our total involvement in sector-specific SEZs to only five projects."

These are: Phaltan in Satara (engineering), Chincholi in Solapur (textiles), Shendra in Aurangabad (aluminium), Hinjewadi Phase III in Pune (infotech) and Lote Parshuram near Chiplun in Ratnagiri (pharmaceuticals).

Another 17 projects have been planned on a 26:74 partnership ratio involving private developers, he said. "MIDC's stake will be 26 per cent while the rest will be of private developers', who will also be the co-owner, responsible for all the SEZ operations," he added. "A bulk of these projects are situated in the vicinity of bigger cities like Pune, Mumbai and Aurangabad."

For instance, the multi-product SEZs at Chakan in Pune, at Sinnar in Nashik and at Nandgaon in Amravati are coming up in partnership with Bharat Forge, India Bulls and El Deco, respectively, Deshpande said.

To read more, please, visit The Times of India