With the Mumbai and Pune metropolitan regions, which contribute 52% of the state's GDP, being the worst-hitdue to the lockdown, UD Minister Eknath Shinde demands that future investments be decentralised
Construction work continues on the Samruddhi Mahamarg. Pic./ Pradeep Dhivar
Maharashtra Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde has suggested a plan to decongest commercial activities in Mumbai and Pune Metropolitan Regions (MMR and PMR) where the lockdown has shut businesses, rendering a workforce of several lakh jobless. These two metropolitan regions share 52% of the state's GPD and the shutdown here will impact the state economics adversely, he said, demanding that investments in future be made in the 24 districts which the Balasaheb Thackeray Mumbai–Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway would connect with the state capital.
In a letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta recently, Shinde said that since the MMR and PMR's service sectors contributed 52% to the state's GDP, the economy would really start rolling and lakhs of jobs will be restored only after these regions, which are COVID-19 red zones, start operating post-lockdown. "We may have allowed business in other areas to restart, but that won't suffice. We should learn from the Coronavirus experience and prevent a similar situation in future. We should appoint a task force of ministers and experts to form a policy of decentralising development activities," he said.
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Shinde has suggested that several sectors could be taken to the 24 districts which would be connected to Mumbai by the Samruddhi corridor. "The travel time would be reduced to 4-6 hours and this would augur well for the export-related industry. Every revenue division has a specific nature for supporting a specific industry. The new policy should be flexible in offering concessions to the investors in different divisions. I suggest that a task group of urban development, industry, finance, revenue, tourism and others be formed to decentralise development activities," he said.
Shinde said his suggestions, if considered and implemented effectively, should help the state in emergency situations that force economic activities to shut in places where they have more concentration. "This should a roadmap for future. We may not shut down entirely and keep the economy alive. It will help us in limiting salary and job cuts," Shinde said.
Other than MMR and PMR, Aurangabad and Nashik are the regions where national companies and multinationals have massive manufacturing plants, but all are affected very badly by the pandemic. The industrial zones here are huge and provide jobs to several lakh people. Some of these units have resumed production after 40-45 days of shutdown using a limited workforce. The ancillary sectors have been hit badly cutting even more jobs. A large number of migrant workers have left these regions for home.
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