Centre okays Rs 492-crore electronics manufacturing hub in Pune: Dy CM Fadnavis

Later, addressing a press conference, Fadnavis said the EMC, targeted to attract Rs 2,000 crore investment and to generate 5,000 employment opportunities, will be ready in 32 months.

“This EMC will target units of industrial electronics, consumer electronics, solar PV manufacturing, E-Mobility products / components etc,” according to Fadnavis.

The Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party, and the Shiv Sena (UBT) have been protesting against the Eknath Shinde government over the state losing out on investments.

They have demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Shinde and Industries Minister Uday Samant for letting the proposed Rs 21,935-crore Tata-Airbus military transport aircraft manufacturing facility go to Gujarat.

Earlier, Gujarat had pipped Maharashtra to land a joint venture of mining conglomerate Vedanta and Taiwanese manufacturing giant Foxconn.

Reacting to Fadnavis’s announcement, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray said this investment was not commensurate with the total investment the state has lost since the Shinde-Fadnavis government came to power.

“When the state lost the Vedanta-Foxconn project, it was said that this government would bring in a project with far higher value in this state. Today, they have announced a project of Rs 2,000-cr. There can’t be any comparison between a Rs 1.5 lakh-cr project which the state lost and this project valued at Rs 2,000-cr,” according to Thackeray.

Thackeray added that the groundwork as well as talks of bringing this project to Maharashtra was conducted by the then Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government.

The present state government has only capitalised on the groundwork done by the MVA, he said.

Meanwhile the NCP’s Pune city unit staged a protest on Monday, accusing the state government of working in the interest of Gujarat and hampering the prospects of the youth of the state.

The NCP had said earlier that Shinde should own moral responsibility for key projects going to Gujarat and resign the way British prime minister Liz Truss did.