"Now that the new Relief & Rehabilitation policy has come into being, the government may think of relaxing the upper limit of 5,000 hectares for SEZs (once the land acquisition law is enacted), he said on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit.

The rules would be relaxed, "especially for multi-product SEZs", 34 of which are already in place. Three to four of these SEZs have an area of 5,000 hectares, including that of Reliance Industries [Get Quote] and DLF.

"We will take a view on this and have a fresh look (after the bill is passed) on a case-by-case basis," he said. Pillai said farmers would also be given an option of becoming stakeholders in the company that comes up on their land.

He exports from SEZs are likely to touch Rs 67,000 crore (Rs 670 billion) by the end of this year and they are at present, Rs 33,000 crore (Rs 330 billion).

Foreign direct investment in SEZs during the last 18 months have touched $3 billion and are expected to go up three-to-four fold in the one-and-half years, he said, adding that by 2009-end, these zones would have created six lakh jobs. 

India's great rush for SEZs