State set to give final nod to IFSC
However, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis remained firm on his decision and pushed for the IFSC in Mumbai.
Mumbai: Despite Union finance minister Arun Jaitley having ruled out setting up the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), the Maharashtra government is set to give the centre its final approval. The approval will come in a week’s time after consultations with the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) as the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project and the IFSC share the same site.
The master plan has been prepared by a consortium of Tata Consulting Engineers and Townland Consultants of Hong Kong. The CMO confirmed the move and said that the state government will go ahead with the plan. “The government will go ahead with the IFSC and soon, it will get the final nod,” said an official from the CMO.
Plans for the IFSC came to a halt for some time after the bullet train project demanded the same space. It was only later decided that the bullet train would have underground parking while the IFSC would come up on ground level. Accordingly, the plan for the IFSC was altered. MMRDA handed over 0.9 hectare of permanent land and another 3.3 hectare of temporary land at BKC to the NHSRCL on April 20, 2018. Now, the railway will complete the underground work considering construction of towers that has to take place on this land, an official said.
There is a direct competition between the IFSC and the Gujarat International Finance Tech-City (GIFT) in Ahmedabad, the latter being the Prime Minister’s dream project in his own state. The GIFT however is ahead of the IFSC in terms of infrastructure. There have also been allegations levelled by opposition parties about shifting the financial centre to Ahmedabad when Mumbai is the financial capital of the country. Later, Mr Jaitley in his budget speech said that the IFSC will come up in Gujarat and not Mumbai. However, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis remained firm on his decision and pushed for the IFSC in Mumbai.
The Maharashtra and Gujarat governments have 25 per cent stake each in the bullet train project and the railway has the remaining 50 per cent. The state government has to contribute Rs 5,000 crore against the equity.