Mumbai, July 8 (IANS) Striking an aggressive tone on future economic growth, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday unveiled a historic capital expenditure blueprint for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

Responding to the debate on a motion moved by treasury bench members under Rule 293 in the State Assembly, the Chief Minister announced that a massive Rs 12,26,871 crore ($147 billion) has been earmarked for infrastructure and development projects across the MMR and its decentralised growth centres. The multi-decade economic plan aims to scale the MMR’s current Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from a baseline of $84 billion to $825 billion by 2047, coinciding with India’s Viksit Bharat centenary.

Of the Rs 12,26,871 crore, development projects worth Rs 6,14,871 crore are at various stages of implementation, while projects worth Rs 6,11,836 crore will be launched over the next three years. He claimed that Mumbai and the MMR have emerged as the state’s growth engine and that Mumbai has become the fintech and startup capital, attracting higher foreign direct investment (FDI).

CM Fadnavis said the state’s primary economic agenda cannot rely solely on the spatial limits of traditional South and Central Mumbai. Achieving the $825 billion target requires substantial diversification into multi-modal logistics, high-yield digital infrastructure and a new ring of satellite business districts.

“Urbanisation is accelerating rapidly. By 2047, nearly 70 per cent of our population will live in cities, contributing up to 80 per cent of our state’s overall domestic product,” CM Fadnavis said during his address in the Assembly.

“The Mumbai Metropolitan economy must grow exponentially to act as the primary locomotive for Maharashtra’s broader goal of becoming a $5 trillion economy by 2047.”

The capital outlay across the region has been divided into key interconnected public infrastructure sectors. The major focus areas within the blueprint include decentralised growth hubs, multimodal transport and port integration, and a high-tech industrial ecosystem along with data clusters.

The Chief Minister said the development of Mumbai 0.3 beyond Navi Mumbai and Mumbai 0.4 around Vadhavan Port would be crucial for accelerating the growth of the MMR and Maharashtra. In addition, an EduCity is being developed in Mumbai 3.0, where eight leading foreign universities will establish campuses with a combined intake capacity of one lakh students.

Addressing concerns over the financing of the Rs 12.26 lakh crore roadmap, CM Fadnavis reiterated his government’s policy shift away from keeping large public funds locked in municipal fixed deposits (FDs).

“We corrected a major structural error where massive amounts of public funds remained locked in municipal bank deposits earning a low 3 per cent yield, while inflation stood at 7 per cent, effectively eroding 4 per cent of their economic value annually,” CM Fadnavis said.

By unlocking surplus civic cash reserves for infrastructure investments, the government has channelled Rs 2 lakh crore directly into ongoing capital works.

CM Fadnavis assured the Assembly that the strategy would generate a 15 per cent socio-economic return through improved logistics, productivity gains and employment generation, while maintaining the financial stability of agencies such as the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

To unlock global commercial potential, a highly integrated transportation strategy has been planned around the mega Vadhavan Port project in Palghar, along with the construction of a 377-km high-speed Metro network. This includes signal-free industrial connectivity from Nariman Point to the proposed Virar Offshore Airport, reducing travel time to 50 minutes.

Recognising data as a vital sovereign resource, a significant portion of the proposed expenditure will be invested in world-class data centres and a dedicated “Health City” cluster within the MMR, he said.

–IANS

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