On Tuesday, the inter-ministerial Board of Approval (BoA) cleared as many as six applications for starting Special Economic Zones (SEZ).

These clearances include the names like L&T and Hindalco. Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Haryana SEZ has been given a time extension.

BoA, which is the nodal agency that looks after the matter related to SEZ said that as many as four proposals were withdrawn by the developers. The list included big names like Bata India. These developers cited slowdown as the reason for their withdrawal.

But despite some cases like these, the good news is that the interest of the investors in SEZ sector is fast coming back. This has happened because of the recovery happening in this area.

DLF, which had withdrawn its application last year, is now going to start a project in Kolkata.

As for the time extension part, 32 developers besides Reliance have gone for this option. These include TCS, Uttam Galva, Unitech Reality Projects Ltd and the Navi Mumbai SEZ.

Taking this into consideration, 100 promoters have asked for extension and the economic slowdown has been cited as the reason.