Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh maintained that Maharashtra continues to remain the top destination for industrial investment in the country.
The Reserve Bank of India report only speaks of projects, which have secured assistance from banks or financial institutions and it doesn't reflect the true nature of investments from various states.
The recently-published RBI report on investments, based on the advances extended by banks to industrial and infrastructure projects, put Gujarat on top, Andhra Pradesh at No. 2 slot and shows Maharashtra having slipped to the third position.
The report also says the gap between No.1 and No.2, and No.3 states is quite huge with Gujarat getting an investment of Rs 73,170 crore (Rs 731.7 billion), Andhra Pradesh Rs 25,173 crore (Rs 251.73 billion) and Maharashtra getting Rs 24,330 crore (Rs 243.3 billion).
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the function organised to sign MoUs with units who will set up shop in Maharashtra, Deshmukh said.
There are many projects in Maharashtra which many industries are putting up from their own internal accruals like General Motors which will be investing around Rs 1,300 crore (Rs 13 billion). GM is investing from it's own reserves without any financial assistance from banks.
Besides, most of the projects coming up in Gujarat are in the infrastructure sector like port, power among others, which are capital incentive. However, a number of industrial projects coming up in Maharashtra are quite high, and they are creating many more jobs than the investments in Gujarat, he added.
Many infrastructure projects in Maharashtra, especially like the Mumbai Trans Harbor Link, Metro railway, power projects, second airport for Mumbai are set to take-off and once the work on these project starts, one will see the scenario changing in favour of Maharashtra, said industry secretary V K Jairath.
Besides, by RBI's own admission these figure change dramatically year-on-year, he pointed out.
He also claimed that the report of FICCI on the industrial investment still ranks Maharashtra as the No.1 destination and International Institute of Management Development of Switzerland ranked Maharashtra as an investment destination even more attractive than countries like Italy, South Africa, Russia among others.
Meanwhile, the chief minister's office also released some data on the investment came into the state in the last few years.
According to these figures, since the state government adopted a mega project policy in September 2005, investment proposals of around Rs 47,500 crore (Rs 475 billion) had come into the state through 55 new projects.
This include Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) from Gulf Finance and Energy who will be developing the energy city on the outskirts of city, Boeing Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion), Volkswagen, Rs 2,350 crore (Rs 23.5 billion), General Motors Rs 1,350 crore (Rs 13.5 billion), Bajaj Auto Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) among others.
Besides, 109 special economic zones are coming up in the state, which is the highest in the country and includes two SEZs of Reliance and an SEZ each from Bajaj, Bharat Forge, Mahindra and Mahindra, Videocon and the three SEZs of state government undertakings like Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation and Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation are major one, said sources from chief minister's office.
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