Maharashtra govt taps FDI to push infra projects

Maharsahtra CM Devendra Fadnavis (File)

The Maharashtra government is trying to aggressively market its leading status in foreign direct investments (FDI) to attract new overseas partnership to push its infrastructure projects in Maharashtra. A senior secretary in the state government said, “At present, we have received almost 50 proposals from at least 15 countries expressing their willingness to partner in various mega-infrastructure projects. We are not in favour of long gestation period and would like the MoUs to translate into ground reality within a time frame.”

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is leading a high-level delegation to South Korea and Singapore between September 25 and 29 eyeing investments through overseas partnership for big ticket projects that have to be completed by 2019. Topping the agenda is investment for the ambitious Nagpur-Mumbai Supercommunication Expressway likely to cross Rs 46,000 crore.

The chief minister has scheduled meetings with Seoul Hosang Chemicals, Samsung, Hyundai, Heavy Engineering and LG Electronics, among others. The projects shortlisted through FDI includes the Nagpur and Pune airports through partnership with Singapore’s Changi airport.

An internal report of the state highlights, “Maharashtra should aggressively attract FDI to push infrastructure projects. Maharashtra’s leading status in FDI and infrastructure reforms provides a double advantage both at domestic and global markets.” The World Bank team that visited the state had recently lauded the state’s reforms in core areas.

In the last one year, the government has been trying to improve the rankings by making business norms more investor-friendly and cutting down permission bottlenecks by 40 per cent. The CM said, “Of the total FDI received in India, Maharashtra has bagged 50 per cent. Maharashtra has a huge lead in FDI investment vis a vis its competitors for second and third positions. When Maharashtra got a total FDI share of Rs 1.20 lakh crore, Delhi’s share stood at Rs 40,000 crore.” “This reflects greater confidence in investors in Maharashtra,” he added.

A Niti Ayog report says, “Maharashtra has taken the lead with Rs 5.96 lakh crore worth infrastructure projects in key areas.” According to a high-powered committee member among countries that have shown keen interest in partnership with Maharashtra are Japan, China, America, South Korea, Netherlands, Singapore and Austria.

An official said, “Recently, we elicited a positive response from Japan, which is willing to give soft loan of Rs 30,000 crore with a low interest rate of 0.5 per cent for a period of 30 years. It would help take forward the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) and Metro Projects.” The big projects include Navi Mumbai airport, Coastal road, Metro network, MTHL, water transport, Kalyan-Dombivali smart city, Nagpur-Pune Metros, and elevated railway corridors.