NISHA NAMBIAR PUNE, MAY 8 PUNE leads the rest of the state by a huge margin in terms of investment through notified Special Economic Zones (SEZs) for the 2009 fiscal. It accounts for 13 of the 43 SEZs notified for the state as per the records of the Directorate of Industries till March 31,2009. Pune is followed by Thane district with eight SEZs, Aurangabad with seven, Konkan and Vidarbha with six each, Mumbai with two and Satara with one. In terms of investment, the 13 notified SEZs translate into 19 per cent funds flowing into Pune out of the total Rs 45,610-crore investment mark-up for the state. In all, the state is looking to approve 143 SEZs and the share of Pune will definitely go up. Between the 13 SEZs in Pune, as much as 664 hectares have been notified at an investment mark-up of Rs 8,842 crore that will translate into jobs for 4.69 lakh people. Against this, between the 43 SEZs notified in the state, a total of 6,279 hectares were acquired and the aggregate investment will be to the tune of Rs 45,610 crore, leading to job opportunities for 15.86 lakh hands. Though the state SEZs did not see progress in March-April due to the economic slowdown and elections, officers say a huge investment is in the pipeline and Pune is the frontrunner as the most preferred investment destination. The SEZs have to undergo a three-stage process - in-principle approval, formal approval and notified stage. For the last stage, the SEZ should have already acquired One of the 13 SEZs to get notified is the joint venture floated by Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and Bharat Forge. The SEZ has already acquired 1,222 hectares from four villages and also has 483 hectares of government land in the first phase of acquisition. They have put up a proposal to acquire nearly 5,000 hectares from 17 villages in the area. MIDC, which was to acquire land for both the Videocon SEZ at Wagholi and the Mahindra and Mahindra SEZ at Karla, will not go ahead as the government has put a stay on the proposals following opposition from local residents. Among the notified SEZs are those by Kumar Builders, Flagship Infrastructure, Serum Bio-Pharma Park, EON, Kharadi, Wipro Infotech Ltd, Syntel, Manjari Stud Farm, Infosys, Maga-rpatta IT and DLF Akruti Info Park. In September, four SEZs from Pune were given the formal approval