Maha loses ₹22k-Cr aircraft project to Guj

Shinde, Fadnavis had asked Centre’s help to set up production facility of C-295 transport aircraft in Nagpur; State loses out on third big project after Vedanta-Foxconn, bulk drug park

MUMBAI: The Eknath ShindeDevendra Fadnavis government came under opposition fire on Thursday after the Centre announced that the Rs 22,000-crore C-295 transport aircraft manufacturing plant will come up in Vadodara, Gujarat, despite the ruling coalition’s attempts to house the joint venture at the Multimodal International Cargo Hub and Airport (MIHAN) in Nagpur.

The chief minister as well as other ministers made trips to the National Capital last month and were also in talks with Union ministers, ever since the mammoth $19.5 billion Vedanta-Foxconn semi-conductor plant went to Gujarat last month.

Thursday’s development

serves as an embarrassment to Shinde, who had said that the PM had promised him “bigger and better” projects for the state. It gave the opposition ammunition to attack the CM for losing out on yet another

big-ticket project to Gujarat, and a chance to reiterate its claim that Shinde’s alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was hurting the state.

“Another project! (...) I wonder

why every project is going to other states in the last 3 months. Loss of faith in Khoke Sarkar is evident on industry level,” Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray wrote in a post on Twitter.