Amid criticism over losing projects to Gujarat, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said the neighbouring state isn’t Pakistan, and it is natural for some projects to go to other states.

Speaking at the India Global Forum here, Fadnavis said we are in the era of “competitive federalism” and the number of states vying for investments has gone up to 10 now from just 2-3 earlier, a “welcome” development.

“A company going to Gujarat, Karnataka or Delhi…it’s not Pakistan. It’s our country,” Fadnavis said.

He was quick to add that Maharashtra “really wants” everyone to come to the state, and has been working on both ease of doing business and cost of doing business.

It can be noted that the Opposition has criticised the Maharashtra government for losing mega investment projects like the ones on semiconductors to neighbouring Gujarat.

Fadnavis said the state has formed a panel under Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran for achieving economic success, and exuded confidence of taking the GSDP to USD 1 trillion by 2030.

He claimed that the state is the start-up capital as it is home to a fifth of the overall number of such enterprises, and also added that 25 unicorns valued at over USD 1 billion each are headquartered in the state.

A Centre of Excellence on artificial intelligence is coming up in IIIT Nagpur in collaboration with Google, he said.

The Deputy Chief Minister said over USD 30 billion worth of projects have been started to improve the infrastructure in the Mumbai metropolitan area during 2014-19 alone, when he was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

Of the 375 km sanctioned metro lines, 50 km is already functional while another 50 km will be commissioned in 2024 and 2025, he said, adding that the entire network will be reality in 2027.

It is a “dream” to ensure that a person can travel from one end of the city to the other in under an hour; Fadnavis said, enlisting the projects that the government has taken up.

The state is creating a “third Mumbai” on the other side of the harbour where the Atal Setu lands, Fadnavis said, adding that it will fuel economic growth of Maharashtra for 30 years.

With the Lok Sabha polls approaching, Fadnavis said the BJP and its allies are confident of winning at least 42 of the 48 seats in the state, adding the number may even go up to 45.

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