Maha CM Eknath Shinde meets Adani in Mumbai amid row over big projects

The meeting comes amid criticism by the opposition over diversion of big ticket projects like Vedanta-Foxconn and Tata-Airbus from Maharashtra to Gujarat.

Mumbai: Amid criticism by the opposition over diversion of big ticket projects like Vedanta-Foxconn and Tata-Airbus to Gujarat, Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday met Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani at Varsha Bungalow in Mumbai. As per sources, the meeting lasted for about one and a half hours.

Industry Minister Uday Samant was also present during this meeting. It is said that the CM discussed various industry related matters and employment generation avenues. The Eknath Shinde led coalition government is under fire for the diversion of the big ticket projects from Maharashtra to Gujarat. Mining giant Vedanta and Taiwan’s world No.1 chip manufacturing company, Foxconn, in mid-September, signed an agreement to set up a semi-conductor plant in Gujarat which the previous Uddhav government had been pushing to be set up in Maharashtra’s Talegaon area near Pune.

Likewise, on October 30, PM Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the Rs 22,000 crore Tata Airbus C-295 aircraft manufacturing facility in Vadodara, Gujarat. The Tata Airbus team had almost finalised a deal with the previous Shiv Sena (Uddhav) led government for the project to come up in an industrial belt near Nagpur.

NCP supremo Sharad Pawar recently hit out at the Eknath Shinde government for its “inefficiency” in retaining big-ticket projects saying the projects had been diverted right under the nose of the government.