Shinde-Fadnavis to release white paper on investment projects next month

Mumbai Cornered by the opposition parties over major investment projects going out of Maharashtra, the Shinde-Fadnavis government has decided to come clean on the issue

Mumbai Cornered by the opposition parties over major investment projects going out of Maharashtra, the Shinde-Fadnavis government has decided to come clean on the issue.

Thane, India - October , 29, 2022: industry Minister Uday Samant seen giving information about projects in a press conference on Saturday in thane ,in Thane,Mumbai, India, on,Saturday, October, 29, 2022. ( Praful Gangurde / HT Photo)

State industries minister Uday Samant announced on Tuesday that in a month’s time it would release a white paper to disclose the information on the industrial investment received by the state. The white paper will also talk about the investment that came in the two and half years of the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government.

Samant said that the white paper will have information about the communications made by the industries department and MIDC with the foreign firms for bringing the projects and details of meetings held at the World Economic Forum held in Davos among other details.

“It will have details related to projects such as Vedanta-Foxconn, bulk drug park, medical devices park, Airbus-Tata military aircraft project and Safran’s aircraft engine unit,” Samant told reporters.

After losing ₹1.54 lakh crore Vedanta-Foxconn, ₹5,000 crore bulk drug park, ₹424 crore medical devices park and ₹22,000 crore Tata Airbus projects to Gujarat and the French aircraft engine major Safran to Hyderabad it led to serious backlash. The Shinde-Fadnavis government insists that the investors chose other states because of the approach of the previous MVA government.

“Signing MoU’s with firms does not mean that the investment has come. To bring the investment, the government will have to resolve issues related to proposed land, provide infrastructure, decide incentive packages among other things,” Samant said.

Samant was responding to Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray’s claims that they succeeded in bringing investment worth ₹80,000 crore during Davos tour held in May this year. Thackeray was environment minister in the last government and participated in the annual WEF meeting along with the industries minister Subhas Desai and power minister Nitin Raut.

Thackeray had further claimed that his party leader Subhash Desai brought investments worth ₹6.6 lakh crore as industries minister between 2014 and 2022.