Deshmukh has even gone to the extent of using his office to get sops for the new private port coming up at Rewas — about 10 nautical miles from Mumbai port. Recently, the Chief Minister wrote a letter to Shipping Minister T R Baalu urging him to extend the dedicated Delhi-Mumbai freight corridor of the Indian Railways to Rewas. He has also suggested that the 10 per cent royalty demanded by the MbPT from Rewas for using the former’s territorial waters was too high and should be scaled down.

Pawar’s action may lead to a confrontation between the Congress and the NCP in the UPA Government and the NGOs might also raise environmental concerns over the use of salt-pan lands for development of real estate.

And the MbPT, on its part, has been claiming that it has no surplus land to spare for housing and that its expansion plans would not add to traffic snarls.