In the span of two months, Maharashtra has lost out on two huge projects to Gujarat. The shifting of the project was an effort by the Shinde-Bharatiya Janata Party government to ensure the victory of the BJP in the Gujarat Assembly polls. In all the state has lost total investments projected at Rs 2.25 lakh crore which could have generated over two lakh jobs. The Opposition in Maharashtra came down heavily on Eknath Shinde-led government for losing out the multi-crore Tata-Airbus project and Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor manufacturing project to the neighbouring poll-bound state of Gujarat.
Instead of competing hard, the Eknath Shinde-led government allowed, within four months of taking oath in 2022, four major projects to slip out of the state. Coincidentally, all preferred Gujarat. These include the Tata Airbus manufacturing plant and Vedanta-Foxconn plant besides two others, totalling a staggering Rs 1.80 lakh crore investment and lakhs of jobs. Therefore, the state’s overall capacity was questioned. Due to which electric vehicle manufacturing, AI-driven industries, integrated data centre parks, agri and food processing units, has been met with scepticism. Without a plan and aggressive canvassing the Shinde government proceeded. Even Mumbai’s status as the commercial and financial capital of India is under a shadow. Already, the finance sector has shown a preference, natural or politically nudged, towards the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, or GIFT City, near Ahmedabad with eight of the 10 biggest Indian asset managers by assets having relocated their business there or set up new funds in GIFT City, according to a recent report. With the GIFT City assiduously promoted by the Modi-led union government as a gateway for global capital and financial services, and Mumbai’s status as a diamond trading centre challenged by the 800-hectare Surat’s Diamond Research and Mercantile City, Mumbai needs to pull up its socks. However, hardly any efforts are seen. The Shinde -Fadnavis government preferred to tow the line of Delhi bosses.
The state government, in turn, has pinned the blame on the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, alleging that kickbacks and corruption on part of the MVA government were the root cause of the project slipping out of Maharashtra. But even as the ugly war of words continues in Maharashtra politics, it turns out that Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways and Nitin Gadkari had written a letter to the Tata Sons chairman, making a case for why the company should expand its various businesses in Nagpur-Maharashtra and how the company could make good use of the excellent infrastructure facilities created in the region. The letter written by Nitin Gadkari emphasised how the state had created a special economic zone (SEZ) in MIHAN (Multi-Modal International Hub Airport at Nagpur). Gadkari had advocated how land, manpower, and warehousing could favour the Tata Group.
But what caused these slippages?
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