Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan likens his short stint to a 20-20 match. In this interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24x7’s Walk the Talk, he talks about the challenges before him post-26/11, the strengthening of the police force, the sea link and the next Assembly elections

•Shekhar Gupta: On this very, very windy monsoon morning at Bombay’s proud new sea link, my guest is Ashok Chavan, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

Ashok Chavan: Hi, Shekhar. Nice to see you.

•Shekhar Gupta: Very nice to see you, and if I may say so, the youngest Chief Minister in the Congress right now.

Ashok Chavan: Well, I don’t know how young I am but I am young at heart.

•Shekhar Gupta: It is a good feeling to stand here.

Ashok Chavan: Yeah, you see this is a wonderful sea link. It is a marvel. We have reduced the commuting time by almost half an hour. I think after the Gateway of India, this is one of the landmarks of Mumbai now.

•Shekhar Gupta: But it took too long coming up?

Ashok Chavan: I know there have been problems but ultimately it has happened.

•Shekhar Gupta: How do you analyse these delays? Something that should take three years takes nine years in India.

Ashok Chavan: You see, procedural issues are there. Then of course, we have the local people who have some problems — the people staying in the vicinity, the coolies and the fishermen. There was some problem which had to be sorted out. We had to change the alignment of the bridge. Such issues came up which actually delayed the project for some time but nevertheless, I think it has worked out to be fine now.

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