New Delhi, March 20: The government today approved six proposals to set up special economic zones, taking the total number of such approved zones to more than 450.

The board of approval, chaired by commerce secretary Gopal Pillai, took up nine proposals, of which five were granted formal approvals and one got an in-principle go-ahead.

Excluding the go-aheads given today, the board has granted formal approvals to 449 SEZs, of which 206 have been notified. Of the five formal approvals granted today, four are for setting up IT/ITeS zones by Brigade Enterprises in Karnataka, Wellgrow Buildcon and Sunwise Properties in Haryana and Smart City (Kochi) Infrastructure in Kerala.

The in-principle approval granted to Smart City (Kochi) Infrastructure was converted to a formal okay today.

Also, a biotech project in Andhra Pradesh by Vivo Bio Tech Ltd was given a formal approval.

An engineering SEZ in Maharashtra by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation was granted an in-principle approval.

As many as 101 formal approvals have been granted for SEZs in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh under the Special Economic Zones Act, 2005.

The SEZ Act of 2005 that came into effect on February 10, 2006, sought to provide various incentives and tax sops to the units in an SEZ to attract large-scale capital.