Maharashtra to be developed as state of global standards: Ashok Chavan

Terming Maharashtra as the most preferred destination of foreign investors, chief minister Ashok Chavan today said the government wants to develop it as a state of global standards.

"Maharashtra has always been the most preferred destination of foreign investors because of its infrastructure, administration. Instead of getting caught into issues related to caste, religion and language, the government intends to concentrate on development," Chavan said addressing the people on 63rd Independence Day.

Chavan said the state has a lion's share in country's development post-independence. However, not content with just that, the state has prepared a vision document for its future development, he added.

"The government has recently come out with a policy for investors to develop ports and jettys. The government expects an investment of Rs 22,000 crore upto 2015," he said.

He also said industrialists and businessmen would be immensely benefited by the Mumbai-Delhi Industrial corridor.

Chavan said though even Maharashtra was hit by economic recession, it succeeded in achieving growth rate of 8.06% last year.

Regarding Marathi, he said a separate department for the development and conservation of language has been set up in Mantralaya.

"We have also decided to install Unicode font on all computers in government offices," he added.