Haryana SEZ: RIL plans to bring in strategic partner

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries is planning to bring in a strategic business partner in its Haryana SEZ project to maximise investment potential in the joint venture unit.

Created to develop special economic zones in the northern state, Reliance Haryana SEZ Ltd is a joint venture between Reliance Ventures Ltd, an RIL subsidiary, and Haryana State Industrial Investment Development Corporation.

"The company plans to engage a strategic business associate to help maximise the potential of the investments made so far and make the SEZ a truly global investment destination," RIL informed its shareholders about Haryana SEZ in its annual report for 2008-09.

RIL said that Haryana SEZ would function as an integrated package with all the required facilities ensuring sustainable development of medium and large scale industries and service activities with sufficient provision for future growth and expansion.

The SEZ was to originally come up on 10,000 hectares at an investment of over Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion), but the size was scaled down to 5,000 hectares after the government put a cap on land acquisition for such projects.

RIL and Haryana government had entered into a deal in 2006 for setting up the multi-product SEZ, at that time billed as India's largest and expected to attract about Rs 1,00,000 crore (Rs 1,000 billion) of third-party investments.

At that time, RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani had said that the JV company would be listed on the bourses.