MTDC's submersible vessel project could go to Gujarat: Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Vaibhav Naik

Vaibhav Naik. Pic/Facebook

Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Vaibhav Naik has alleged that a project to have a battery-operated submersible vehicle for tourists in the Arabian Sea is 'most likely' to be shifted from Maharashtra to Gujarat, reported the PTI.

The claim was dismissed by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, as per the PTI.

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According to Vaibhav Naik, the battery-powered submersible vehicle project was approved by the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) in 2018 and the then government under Uddhav Thackeray also made a financial provision for it in the state's budget in 2019, the news agency reported.

However, the project never took off and it is "most likely to be shifted to Gujarat, he claimed.

His party colleague and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut demanded that the state government "clarify the confusion" over the matter.

"This is broad daylight dacoity... They are taking away jobs of Marathi people," he alleged.

However, CM Eknath Shinde dismissed Vaibhav Naik's claims.

CM Eknath Shinde told reporters, "The project belongs to Maharashtra and it is going nowhere else. Do not trust any other claims about it. I have spoken to industries minister Uday Samant about it. The project is not going out of the state."

Earlier, the opposition had alleged that the diamond industry was shifting to Surat in Gujarat and the government was unable to do anything about it. It had also levelled similar allegations against the Shinde government over Vedanta-Foxconn, Tata-Airbus and bulk drug park projects.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Surat Diamond Bourse, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said that earlier diamond trade used to take place in the Bandra-Kurla Complex of Mumbai, from where it has been shifted to Gujarat, the ANI had reported on December 17.

"Those who are in power today do not have the power to think about the country. The Prime Minister will inaugurate the diamond business in Surat. Earlier, diamond trade used to take place in the Bandra-Kurla Complex of Mumbai; now it has been shifted from here to Gujarat," Sharad Pawar said while speaking at his party's Swabhiman Sabha at Maharashtra's Raigad on Saturday, the ANI had earlier reported.

(with PTI and ANI inputs)