The Konkan Railway: Package boost

Mumbai, June 24: Maharashtra’s Congress and NCP rulers today announced a Rs 5,232-crore development package for the coastal Konkan region, targeting a traditional Shiv Sena-BJP bastion three months before the scheduled October elections in the state.

The announcement followed a special cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Ashok Chavan in Sindhudurg, industries minister Narayan Rane’s hometown.

Chavan also finalised a series of decisions on projects to develop the picturesque Konkan region into a major tourist hub.

Under a three-year-plan worked out, the state government would pump in Rs 3,915 crore while the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority would execute projects worth Rs 1,317 crore for the development of the region that sends six MPs to Parliament.

In the recent Lok Sabha elections, the Congress-NCP won three seats and the Sena-BJP two, while one went to an Independent.

Widely believed to be a brainchild of Rane, the package commits a sum of Rs 1,550 crore to pending irrigation projects, Rs 345 crore to drinking water schemes and Rs 345 crore to urban development projects. The package includes construction of 30 fishing jetties, 13 ITI polytechnics, nursing colleges in Ratnagiri, Raigad and Sindhudurg, a 100-bed hospital at Bhiwandi and coastal roadways.

The plan also includes construction of a monorail service in Thane district, an airport in Sindhudurg and an airstrip in Ratnagiri. According to the package, a sub-company of the Konkan Tourism Development Corporation will be created to develop the region’s tourism potential.

The sub-company, under a public-private partnership scheme, will develop ropeways and coastal golf courses, convert old buildings into hotels, deploy amphibious vehicles and even set up a wax museum on the lines of Madame Tussauds.

The Konkan region extends from the outskirts of Mumbai to the border with Goa and includes Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts. Although a package for the region had been talked about earlier, the timing of the announcement is believed to have been aimed at wooing Sena voters.

The Sena-BJP organised a protest rally in Sindhudurg and slammed the Konkan package as a “farce”. BJP legislator Vinod Tawade alleged that the package was a ploy to award projects to private contractors and collect election funds from them ahead of the polls. Residents of Kalne village in Sindhudurg also held a protest to coincide with the cabinet meeting. The villagers, who don’t want any mining activity in the picturesque Konkan, have the Sena’s support.

On the other side of the divide, Maharashtra state Congress chief Manikrao Thakre launched his “Sampark Abhiyan”, a state-wide pre-election tour from Kudal in Sindhudurg. He plans to cover all the 288 Assembly constituencies during his 37-day tour.