Interference won't work, innovation will: Fadnavis
Fadnavis was in the city to sign a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Niti Aayog for Pune Metropolitan Region Growth Hub. Pune is the fifth growth hub in the country.
While giving his speech, the chief minister said, 'A big bottleneck of Pune's industrial development is 'local dadagiri' - the interference in the industries by local leaders and goons. They are the ones determining terms about manpower, raw material and others. This is affecting development.'
Fadnavis said that this can be achieved only if the socio-political system for industries undergoes change. 'We cannot ask them to work under pressure. Pune has a lot of potential but other centres like Sambhajinagar and Nagpur are fast emerging. Industries are going there even though Pune's biggest capital is manpower and innovation. Hence, the city should concentrate on innovation. Sambhajinagar is the leading EV capital and very soon, it will cross Pune,' he added.
Niti Aayog's chief executive officer V R Subramanyham spoke about Pune's advantages, potential, and the weak points it needs to tackle to become a world-class city.
'The central government has already identified and started work for four economic growth hubs and the project implementations have started. Now, we are going to declare five more economic growth hubs, including Pune and Katak. Pune is leading in manufacturing, IT, automobile and education but there are many more sectors which have a lot of potential. For example, agri processing and urban tourism.'
He also touched on poor public transport, road network, less open spaces, and traffic issues, calling them hindrances to Pune's growth.
Earlier, the chief minister had announced with regard to infrastructure that his government is planning a new Airport Road and a Ring Road. 'It would create more positive impact for the city. Earlier, land and capital used to attract industries but nowadays, industries are going where skilled manpower is available,' he said.
Fadnavis also said that to meet global standards, a place need to have ease of business and hassle-free policies. 'Government needs to change its mindset and approve the required permissions within a timeframe. Execution of project on time is important, otherwise the projects become generation projects which keep on progressing but with no output,' he added.
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