Maharashtra Government made effort to outbid other States, but our decision was independent: Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal

Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal says that they had decided on Gujarat a few months ago as the State Government met their expectations

The Maharashtra leadership has made a huge effort to outbid other States with a competitive offer, but the decision to choose Gujarat for the deal was on the basis of professional and independent advice, Vedanta Resources Limited Chairman Anil Agarwal said following the Vedanta-Foxconn’s decision to set up their $20 billion semiconductor unit in Gujarat instead of Maharashtra.

He said that they had decided on Gujarat a few months ago as the State Government met their expectations. “But in the July meeting with the Maharashtra leadership, they made a huge effort to outbid other States with a competitive offer. We have to start in one place, and based on professional and independent advice we chose Gujarat,” Mr. Agarwal said.

The 68-year-old billionaire industrialist took to Twitter and said that Vedanta-Foxconn had been professionally assessing the site for a multibillion-dollar investment. “This is a scientific and financial process which takes several years. We started this about 2 years ago.

“This multibillion-dollar long-term investment will change the course of Indian electronics. We will create a pan-India ecosystem and are fully committed to investing in Maharashtra as well. Maharashtra will be our key to forwarding integration in our Gujarat JV [joint venture],” Mr. Agarwal said.

Ever since the company announced their JV and signed a deal with the Gujarat Government for setting up the mega semi-conductor unit, two days ago, it has triggered a political blame game in the State and previous ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ – the Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress — has cornered the State Government for letting the megaproject slip away from Maharashtra as proposed earlier.

Slamming the Opposition for making false claims over the multibillion-dollar project, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that it was disappointing that negative, false and baseless claims were being spread to gain political mileage.

He further questioned the Opposition leader over the Nanar refinery project. “I want to ask Opposition leaders, who sent back ₹3.5 lakh crore refinery from Maharashtra?”