PM to visit Mumbai on October 1

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to be in Mumbai on October 1 on an official visit. HT reports.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to be in Mumbai on October 1 on an official visit.

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The Congress-NCP government, with an eye on the upcoming civic polls, is looking at the visit as an attempt to get sops from the PM on various infrastructure projects.

Singh will be in the city for a function organised by the Shipping Corporation of India. He is then expected to meet chief minister Prithviraj Chavan who will give him a presentation on various infrastructure projects planned for the city.

State bureaucrats have been working overtime to prepare the presentation, which seeks sops for projects like Metro, Coastal Road and the new airport.

The state has planned projects worth more than Rs 2 lakh crore in the Mumbai region alone. However, the precarious financial condition of the state and stringent environmental laws mean that most of them are stuck and are at the mercy of the Central government's largesse.

"We are hoping that the prime minister helps us clear the hurdles for infrastructure projects in the city," a senior state government official said.