Shifting Vedanta-Foxconn to Dholera will harm country

Mumbai: At a time when Vedanta officials are busy finding a suitable place in Gujarat for setting up the Foxconn plant, after having decided to shift the same from Mumbai, there is lot of hue and cry which is being made about the company's decision back in Mumbai.

Despite earlier Maha Vikas Aghadi government's offer for a better package than Gujarat, the Vedanta Foxconn project has gone to Dholera under pressure from the central government.

Talking to Bizz Buzz, Sachin Sawant, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee General Secretary, says, "Even though shifting of plant is a company's prerogative, this decision will result in both Maharashtra and the country as a whole incurring heavy losses in future."

The reason is not far for one to seek. Since Dholera is inconvenient place, many companies including ISMC Digital which proposed manufacturing semiconductors just like Vedanta Foxconn have chosen to withdraw from the same place."

He said that moving Vedanta Foxconn Semiconductor Project to Dholera will not only harm Maharashtra, but also the country.

Reacting on the issue, Sachin Sawant said that according to the internal report of Vedanta Company, Talegaon in Maharashtra was the suitable place for this semiconductor project.

"A comparative study of both Talegaon and Dholera was conducted and Dholera was given less preference citing various reasons like lack of water supply, skilled labour, electronics manufacturing ecosystem, absence of supply chain vendors and secondary manufacturers and also marshy land. Even though Maharashtra had offered many concessions including more capital subsidy than Gujarat, the decision to move the said project to Dholera has been made only under the pressure of the central government.

When Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, he announced many non-feasible projects in the state and wasted thousands of crores of taxpayer's money, the Congress leader said. Recently, three companies applied when the proposal was invited for semiconductor manufacturing with an estimated investment of $10 billion in the country. One of them, ISMC Digital (ISMC Digital) company was supposed to come at Dholera. This ISMC Digital has now fled from Dholera due to lack of facilities and water availability. Interestingly, Gujarat government had entered into a memorandum of understanding with this company.

Jiophone, a joint project of Google and Reliance, left Dholera and moved to Tirupati. Earlier, Lockheed Martin Corporation withdrew from the solar battery project. Hindustan Construction Company had entered into an MoU to build a waterfront city worth Rs40,000 crore at Dholera. But after paying some money for the place, it withdrew. Lashing at the Maharashtra government for losing the project, Sawant said it would have provided employment to Maharashtra and income to the country.

"There is a possibility now that project would be stalled for a long time due to stubborn attitude of the central government. Just like Dholera, Gift City project was also stalled. International Financial Services Centre which was to come in Maharashtra was moved there as soon as Modi government came to power. The Financial Centre would have brought a huge investment in Maharashtra benefitting all. But the central government did not allow it to happen," the Congress leader alleged.

When Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister, the Gujarat government forced the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation to take Rs10,000 crore (Rs10,000) worth of bonds, showing that it had found gas reserves. No gas was found ultimately and the company became debt ridden. ONGC was forced to buy GSPC by Modi government, he said.

PM Modi has claimed to have promised Maharashtra a bigger project than Foxconn, but the state does not need Narendra Modi's grace for such a big project, Sawant said. "Maharashtra has always remained number one in the field of industry on its own merits. It is unfortunate that BJP leaders are weakening the state to fulfil Modi's dream of making Gujarat successful by snatching projects from Maharashtra," Sawant said.