Friday, March 5, 2010

Ashok Chavan's Mega City will re-energise state


Mumbai: Finally, chief minister Ashok Chavan has something to showcase. The state government has given approval to start work on the world’s second largest ‘energy city’ project with an investment of Rs50,000 crore in Panvel, 65km from Mumbai.
On Sunday, Chavan will lay the foundation stone for the Mega City project, which will include a state-of-the-art energy city, an entertainment city, and an information technology and telecom city, spread over an area of 2,100 acres.
According to a senior secretary in the chief minister’s office, the only parallel to such a massive project including the three components of energy, telecom, and entertainment is in Qatar.
The official said the Panvel project would provide direct employment to 2.5 lakh peopleand indirect employment to 5 lakh.
The chief minister, who is personally monitoring the project, held a meeting last week with senior officials to streamline coordination among the various civic and infrastructure agencies that will play roles in the project.
The Mega City project is being financed by Gulf Finance House and executed by Valuable Properties Private Limited. An insider in the chief minister’s office said, “Chavan initiated the project discussions in 2006 when he was industry minister in Vilasrao Deshmukh’s cabinet.”

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