Maharashtra to become trillion-dollar economy, says Fadnavis

Mumbai: Maharashtra is on track to become a trillion-dollar economy, given the impetus to infrastructure development in the last three years, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Monday.

The state attracted more than half of the total foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country last fiscal, Fadnavis said at an industry event.

"Maharashtra is on track to become a trillion-dollar economy, given the impetus to infrastructure development in the last three years," Fadnavis said at the 5th edition of the 'Progressive Maharashtra Summit', organised by industry body Ficci here.

The theme of the summit this year is 'Maharashtra 2025: Leapfrogging to $1 Trillion Economy'.

Noting that the state has always been a leader in industry and business in the country, the chief minister said there have been times when Maharashtra's leadership position was "threatened, challenged and compromised" to some extent.

"However, I should tell you that in the last three years of our government, we have been successful in bringing the state back to the leadership position in the country," he asserted.

Using the FDI metrics in Maharashtra as an indicator, Fadnavis said the state accounted for more than half of the country's foreign direct investment last year, which shows the confidence of global investors.

There used to be a very close competition between Delhi, Karnataka and Gujarat in terms of attracting FDI, he said.

In 2016-17, of the overall FDI, as much as 53 per cent came into Maharashtra, making it the undisputed leader, the chief minister added.

Fadnavis stressed that the reforms being taken up by the government are paving the way for making India globally competitive.

"We have the demography, democracy and demand," he said, adding that when the world population is ageing, 50 per cent of India's population is under 35.

"This demographic dividend can be leveraged to transform Maharashtra into a manufacturing hub to cater to domestic and global demand," he explained.

Fadnavis observed that the Maharashtra government has created infrastructure projects to the tune of Rs 5.96 lakh crore and is looking at setting up more projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore, going forward.

This, he said, would create a lot of jobs for industries in the services sector and enable delivery based on information, communication and technology (ICT).

Fadnavis also said his government will complete 120 kms of new Metro rail lines in Mumbai and another 200 kms in the Mumbai metropolitan region in the next four years, potentially creating an additional capacity of another nine million.

On the trans-harbour link connecting Mumbai-Navi Mumbai, the chief minister promised that the job order will be issued in the next 20 days with the work set to start before year-end.

On the Navi Mumbai International Airport, Fadnavis said the first phase is likely to be commissioned by December 2019 and the second by 2022.

Notably, aviation think-tank Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), in a report last week, said the much-delayed Navi Mumbai airport is unlikely to commence operations before March 2024, given the fact that the successful bidder was yet to receive the official go-ahead for the project.

Fadnavis also said the Nagpur-Mumbai Super Communication Expressway will integrate 24 districts in the hinterland of the state to India's largest port, JNPT, enabling transporting cargo to the port within 12 hours.