The Board of Approval for special economic zones headed by Commerce Secretary S R Rao will meet on March 15 to discuss the setting up of new SEZs in the country.

"The 57th meeting of the Board of Approval (BoA) for SEZs have been scheduled on on March 15," the Commerce Ministry said.

The Development Commissioners have been asked to forward the proposals regarding SEZs along with their comments at the earliest so that they could be placed before the meeting.

At its last meeting on January 18, the Board gave extra time to six Special Economic Zone (SEZ) developers to execute their projects. They included Tata Consultancy Services, G P Realtors and Parsvnath SEZ Ltd.

The 19-member inter-ministerial Board had also approved the de-notification of Gujarat Hydrocarbons and Power SEZ.

Exports from the tax free enclaves grew by 36% year-on-year to Rs 2.39 lakh crore during the April-September quarter of this fiscal.

In 2010-11, the shipments increased by 43% to Rs 3,15,868 crore last fiscal.