Government said on Wednesday it has extended by one year the in-principle approval to Reliance Industries' Maha Mumbai special economic zone but asked the promoters to cut the size of the zone to 5,000 hectares in line with the new rules.

Besides, the commerce ministry has also asked Mukesh Ambani-owned RIL to ensure that the land acquisition for the project must be done with the consent of the owners and no compulsory acquisition is done by the state government.

"The issue was not required to

be brought to the Board of Approval and was processed by the Commerce Ministry," Commerce Secretary G K Pillai told reporters in New Delhi.

He made it clear that RIL has to bring down the size of the project to 5,000 hectares. As per the earlier in-principle clearance which expired this week, the SEZ was proposed to be set up on 10,000 hectares.

But the government has since amended the SEZ rules as decided by a Group of Ministers in April this year to reduce the size of zones after widespread protests in the country.