Amit Shah: Mahayuti's Rs 7 Lakh Cr Mumbai Infra Investment

Mumbai, Jun 20 (PTI) Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday said the UPA regime neglected Mumbai, but the BJP-led Mahayuti government "saved" it with over Rs 7 lakh crore of infrastructure projects.
Investments in the irrigation sector helped end the spate of farmer suicides in Maharashtra, a problem that had been afflicting the state for many decades, the senior BJP leader said.
Speaking at the inauguration of the new headquarters of the Maharashtra Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture here, Shah said India will move up one place to be the third largest economy by 2026-27, and claimed there has been a "symmetric" development in the country over the last 11 years.
With elections to the Mumbai municipal corporation around the corner, Shah said till a few years ago he used to fear what would happen to Mumbai given its problems like population explosion, old and creaking housing, slums, and traffic congestion.
Congratulating Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for reversing the situation, Shah said Fadnavis helped the state, and noted that the state also benefited when Eknath Shinde led the previous government where Fadnavis was deputy CM.
Before 2014, there was a "double engine" government of Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi at the Centre with NCP's Sharad Pawar also being part of it, yet the Congress-led ruling alliance "left Mumbai to its fate" for those ten years, he alleged.
"The double engine governments under Narendra Modi (at the Centre), and Fadnavis-Shinde (in the state) have saved Mumbai with investments of Rs 7 lakh crore," Shah said.
To highlight the BJP-led government's achievements, he listed infrastructure projects such as the 337-km Metro network at an investment of Rs 1.50 lakh crore, Rs 1.08 lakh crore Bullet train between Mumbai to Ahmedabad, Rs 80,000 crore, greenfield port at Wadhawan, Rs 17,000 crore Atal Setu trans-harbour bridge, Rs 55,000 crore Versova-Virar sea-link and Rs 60,000 crore Virar-Alibag multimodal corridor.
Shah also asked if the people now criticizing the style of functioning of the BJP governments had the vision to plan such projects, and added that if they had implemented such projects, Fadnavis would have been left with nothing to do.
There are also accusations and criticism regarding ongoing slum rehabilitation projects, Shah rued, without mentioning any specific project. Notably, the opposition has been targeting the BJP government over the Dharavi redevelopment project involving the Adani group.
The Fadnavis government also implemented projects in the rest of Maharashtra, he said, citing the examples of new airports at Shirdi and in Sindhudurg district.

When he entered politics, farmer suicides in Maharashtra were being discussed at the global level, Shah said, adding that BJP-led governments boosted investment in irrigation which ensured that farmer suicides ended in the state.
Replying to criticism of Maharashtra facing injustice in central allocations, Shah said the total devolutions and grant-in aid to the state increased to Rs 7.82 lakh crore between 2014 to 2024, against Rs 1.91 lakh crore between 2004 to 2014 during the UPA era.
Additionally, grants were given to irrigation and infrastructure projects as well, the Union minister said.
Shah urged industry chambers like MACCIA to sensitise the government about the challenges faced by its members for better policy outcomes, recalling how suggestions to build the Konkan Railway by lobby groups helped economic growth.
Underlining that global events like Israel- Iran and Russia-Ukraine wars are having an impact on the domestic economic activity, Shah said business chambers should engage professional bodies to be relevant, which is possible if they continue to make necessary changes in their functioning.
Shah also asked MACCIA to introspect on its own policies and think of how to get young blood into its working.