At ₹54,714 crore, Maharashtra topped in inviting fresh investment in October-December 2020: Study

With investment worth ₹54,714 crore, Maharashtra has emerged as the top state to attract fresh investments between October and December 2020, according to a study released on Monday.

Projects Today, a pan-India project monitoring organisation based in Mumbai, in its study released on Monday, stated that Maharashtra accounted for one-fifth of the total investment brought in via new projects in the country. The state is followed by Andhra Pradesh, which attracted investments worth ₹29,784 crore and Gujarat, which attracted investments worth ₹26,530 crore. The other states in the top 10 list include Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. With 2,085 new projects, India attracted investment worth ₹276,482.7 crore.

The report also states that the top two projects in the country between October and December 2020 are also from Maharashtra. The biggest deal worth ₹20,000 crore is JSW Steel’s plan to expand its existing plant at Dolvi in Raigad district to the country’s largest steel plant with a capacity of 14 MPTA (million tonne per annum). This is followed by a ₹7,500-crore deal with K Raheja Corp to build at IT (information technology) park in Thane.

“The memorandums of understanding (MoUs) signed by the Maharashtra government helped the state in topping the fresh projex table in Q3/FY21. The MoUs inked were for setting up mega data centres, steel projects and industrial parks in the state,” the report states.

In December 2020, Maharashtra signed MoUs with 25 firms, managing to bring in overall investment over ₹1 lakh crore last year, state industries minister Subhash Desai said at a recent event. In November, the state government signed MoUs worth ₹34,850 crore with 15 national and international firms.

In June it had signed MoUs worth ₹16,300 crore with 12 major companies while inaugurating Magnetic Maharashtra 2.0 – the second instalment of the global investors’ summit.

Shashikant Hegde, chief executive officer, Projects Today, said, “Maharashtra is a preferred location for many industrialists, but we must remember that these are announcements. How much of it bears fruit on ground will be seen in the coming months.”