Maharashtra overtakes Gujarat in new projects

Maharashtra has surpassed Gujarat in terms of new projects undertaken in the industrial, infrastructure and service sectors.

While new projects worth Rs 26,947 crore were undertaken in Maharashtra, Gujarat came second with Rs 24,531 crore worth of new projects in the financial year 2005-06.

This was revealed by the latest RBI Bulletin. The study tried to capture the growth of fixed capital investment by the corporate sector in 2005-06, which was based on projects assistance sanctioned by the commercial banks and other term lending institutes.

In the financial year 2004-05, in terms of total project cost, while Gujarat attracted new projects worth Rs 10,983 crore, Maharashtra managed to get new projects worth Rs 9,808 crore.

Projects worth Rs 1,34,243 crore were undertaken in the country in 2005-06 and the share of projects in Maharashtra was 20.1 per cent, which is almost double the 2004-05 figure of 10.8 per cent.

Gujarat's share has also increased substantially from 11.7 per cent to 18.3 per cent. Maharashtra and Gujarat were followed by Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh with a share of 9.1 per cent and 8.4 per cent, respectively.

In Uttar Pradesh, the number of projects undertaken has jumped from 23 to 50. New projects worth Rs 10,414 crore have been undertaken in the state, compared to just Rs 1,348 in 2004-05.

Despite the media hype about West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's industry-friendly polices, the state attracted new projects worth Rs 2,548 crore, a moderate hike over the 2004-05 figure of Rs 2,324 crore.

This figure is lower than that of Uttaranchal and slightly higher than that of Rajasthan. These states attracted new projects worth Rs 2,959 crore and Rs 2,514 crore, respectively.

The 396 new projects, worth Rs 79,602 crore in 2005-06, accounted for 59.3 per cent of the total cost of projects undertaken in 2005-06, which is substantially higher than the 42.1 per cent in 2004-05.

Fifty two very large projects, costing Rs 500 crore or more, accounted for 58.1 per cent of the total cost of projects in 2005-06. The aggregate cost of these projects was Rs 77,932 crore, whereas in 2004-05, there were only 34 such projects with a total investment of Rs 54,303 crore.

The share of projects between Rs 200 crore to Rs 500 crore has also gone up from 12.7 per cent to 20.1 per cent in 2005-06