‘Maha far ahead of Gujarat in industry’

Maharashtra in still way ahead of neighbouring Gujarat in attracting industrial investments,the Congress-ruled state’s Industries and Ports Minister Narayan Rane claimed on Monday.

“Gujarat is far behind Maharashtra in attracting industrial investment… they have sped up in recent years and have succeeded in creating an impression that it has surpassed Maharashtra,” Rane said. “The fact is that Maharashtra’s share in the national GDP is 19 per cent,while that of Gujarat is 14 per cent.”

He said that over the past five years,there were MoUs for investing Rs 1,92,000 crore in Maharashtra and Rs 82,000 crore had already been invested in ongoing projects. Gujarat had attracted investment worth Rs 62,000 crore only,he added.

Rane,however,admitted that the Gujarat government had developed its ports. “Gujarat is ahead in development of ports. There are several huge ports developed by them,” he said.