New city to be one-and-half times size of Mumbai.
Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has said that legislation to build a city around the proposed new airport in Navi Mumbai was awaiting the clearance of the president.
Chavan told the legislative assembly on Thursday that the work for the new city, which would be one and a half times the size of Mumbai, would be undertaken by Cidco and established in the Navi Mumbai Airport Influenced Notified Area (Naina).
(The area of Mumbai city under the jurisdiction of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is 437 sq km.)
The chief minister said that the state had offered 22.5% developed land to people affected by the airport project and they had accepted it.
Chavan also announced a floor space index (FSI) of 2 for the redevelopment of slums in Sion-Koliwada where an estimated 5,000 people reside.
The chief minister made these announcements while responding to allegations of incompetence against the government made by leader of the Opposition Eknath Khadse during a discussion on a motion.
Chavan said the performance of the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance government should be compared with the rule of the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party between 1995 and 1999. He said the people had voted out the SS-BJP because of the way they ruled the state and reposed their faith in the Congress-led government for the past 15 years.
The chief minister cited the growth in GDP, per capita and a lower debt to GDP ratio as achievements of his government. Even the social indicators were better now than during the SS-BJP government, he said. Incidents of communal violence were down by half under his government, which had also succeeded in curbing Naxalism through development work.
Chavan informed the House that the government had received 403 proposals under its mega industrial policy, of which 305 were approved to be set up in backward regions of the state. Of these, 109 projects were in Vidarbha alone. A total 114 projects were already underway, he said.
On the issue of housing for mill workers, Chavan said 2.84 hectares would be used for this purpose. As many as 6,928 houses have been given to these workers and 3,088 more houses would be given soon.
The chief minister reiterated that the state had granted an FSI of 3 for redevelopment of old cessed buildings in A, B and C categories in south Mumbai. He said he would pursue the Housing Regulatory Bill, which is pending with the Centre.
Chavan informed that the deadline for applications for deemed conveyance had been extended up to December 31, 2014.
On the matter of state government employment, he said there were 10.25 lakh employees, but 1.28 lakh posts were vacant.
Referring to the allegations by Khadse on the promotion of IAS and IPS officers, the chief minister said there was a delay in IPS promotions but there was no problem. In the case of IAS promotions, he said some files were lost in the fire at Mantralaya, but the records had been recreated and the promotions would be processed.
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