Monday, June 11, 2018: Just three months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s historic visit to UAE, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shri Devendra Fadnavis was in Dubai to discuss key investment proposals for his state. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s visit had seen a reiteration of Dubai’s commitment to invest around USD 75 billion in India’s energy, power, agriculture, highways and food processing sectors. Now Maharashtra is poised to be one of the major beneficiaries of these investments as Hon’ble Chief Minister Shri Devendra Fadnavis had extremely fruitful discussions on investments in ports, infrastructure and urban housing including slum redevelopments projects with key decision makers in Dubai.
In an hour-long meeting, hon’ble Chief Minister Shri. Devendra Fadnavis and hon’ble Indian Ambassador to UAE, Shri Navdeep Suri discussed investment opportunities in Maharashtra for Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), UAE’s sovereign wealth fund with USD 850 billion in assets. The Ambassador reiterated ADIA’s commitment to invest USD 75 billion in India through National Investment and Infrastructure fund. ADIA has partnered with HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank in Mumbai to invest in some of the identified areas. In one of the largest capital investments in housing funds in India, ADIA has committed USD 1 billion to HDFC Bank for investment in housing projects, with a majority focus on affordable housing sector.
In another meeting with Sheikh Mohammed Bin Maktoum Bin Juma Al Maktoum, Chairman of MBM Group, hon’ble CM discussed leveraging the royal sovereign fund to invest in Maharashtra’s infrastructure projects. Two such projects are the Mumbai Nagpur super communication expressway and the rehabilitation and renewal project in Dharavi which involves providing water and sewerage connection to 1 lakh households and accomodating all manufacturing and commercial units as part of the slum rehabilitation project, expected to cost INR 25,000 crores.
In another meeting held with Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, DP World, the Chief Minister urged the CEO of DP World to invest with the Govt. of Maharashtra in a logistics parks in Nagpur and develop logistics hubs along the transport corridor from JNPT to the interiors by developing dry ports of Wardha, Jalna, Nasik and Sangli. Responding to the Chief Minister’s suggestions, DP World has agreed to invest with MSRDC and Govt. of Maharashtra’s SPV to develop logistics parks in Maharashtra using ADIA funding. The logistics park will help ease congestion at JNPT, one of the busiest ports in the country. This will allow loading and storing of containers away from the port, saving precious land, as well as quick transportation of containers to the terminal. Meanwhile DP World has also promised to apply block chain technology to reduce custom and clearance formalities, reducing the turnaround time of ships at JNPT.
Dubai-based DP World, is one of the leading global operators of marine and inland terminals, port operator is already present in JNPT, and is currently operating two terminals DP World, in partnership with the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), has announced the creation of an investment platform to invest up to USD 3 billion in ports, terminals, transportation and logistics businesses in India.
The Chief Minister also signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with THUMBAY Group, a U.A.E based diversified business conglomerate with deep interests in Education and Healthcare. In a meeting with the Founder President, Dr. Thumbay Moideen, the Chief Minister invited him to collaborate with the Govt. of Maharashtra and become the Healthcare Partner for all planned projects in the state.
From Dubai, Hon’ble Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is travelling to Canada and the United States of America where he will interact with key business leaders and visit institutions in the two countries to give momentum to infrastructure and information Technology initiatives in Maharashtra.
