Mumbai: A day after Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis informed the Assembly that he would build an International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) here, the Congress on Saturday termed it as “an absolute lie” and accused him of selling out the state’s interests.
“This is an absolute lie and the CM is simply fooling the people of Mumbai and Maharashtra. It is clearly impossible to build an IFSC in the Bandra Kurla Complex since a business hub of this magnitude requires an area of at least 50 hectares as stipulated by international norms,” Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam said. Accusing Fadnavis of having “sold out” the state’s interests to further PM Narendra Modi’s Gujarat concerns, he demanded to know whether there is such a huge space available in the BKC to set up a world-class IFSC.
“From the CM’s statement in the assembly, it appears he intends to build another World Trade Centre at best and pass it off as an IFSC… This is like taking the people of Mumbai for a ride,” he said.
Nirupam pointed out that it was under the erstwhile UPA Government that Mumbai was selected to set up the country’s first IFSC on the lines of New York, London, Dubai, Singapore, Shanghai or Tokyo.
However, this was shifted to Gujarat after the Bharatiya Janata Party assumed power in 2014, causing a huge potential loss of business to Mumbai.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had also categorically stated in Parliament that the proposed IFSC will be developed only in Gujarat and the country cannot have multiple such centres.