Aaditya Thackeray said the current government has lost confidence of investors
Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray hit out at the Maharashtra government after Gujarat bagged the Rs 1.54 lakh crore venture for India's first semiconductor plant. Mining conglomerate Vedanta and Taiwanese electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn have decided to jointly build the plant in Gujarat's Ahmedabad. Gujarat pipped Maharashtra in a close race to win the plant location.
Aaditya Thackeray said that the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra had worked extremely hard to try and win the project.
"It was almost decided that the plant will come up in Maharashtra," said Aaditya Thackeray, who served as a cabinet minister in the MVA government headed by the Shiv Sena.
“Our MVA government had brought this to the final stage. The current
dispensation has lost the confidence of potential investors, hence such mega projects are not coming here," he added.
The Sena leader said the mega project would have supported 160 ancillary industries and generated 70,000 to 1 lakh employment opportunities in Maharashtra.
Targetting Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Mr Thackeray said, "The new dispensation tweeted photos, claiming to have brought this (project) to Maharashtra but it seems intent or commitment was to send this away from Maharashtra."
Vedanta and Foxconn will set up India's first semiconductor production plant, a display fab unit, and a semiconductor assembling and testing unit in Ahmedabad.
Semiconductor chips, or microchips, are essential pieces of many digital consumer products - from cars to mobile phones and ATM cards.
Most of the world's chip output is limited to a few countries like Taiwan and late entrant India is now actively luring companies to "usher in a new era in electronics manufacturing" as it seeks ways to have seamless access to chips.