BOMBAY, 2 March 2005 — The allocation of funds in the federal budget for Bombay has indicated that the government is serious about making the dream of turning the city into another Shanghai. A jubilant Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh profusely thanked federal Finance Minister P. Chidambaram for the “sufficient” Indian Rs 55 billion allocation of funds for here major developmental projects in Bombay, he made in the federal budget on Monday.

Lauding the federal finance minister, Deshmukh described the budge as pro-poor and said that it will give a respite to the common man and the under-privileged. Elaborating further on the budget allocation for Bombay, Deshmukh said that of the several planned projects for the city, the federal government has made budgetary allocations for metrol rail, Trans Harbor Link connecting Sewri to Nhava Sheva port and Western Express Sea Link (Bandra-Worli Sea Link).

The federal budget, Deshmukh said, also mentions a proposal for the construction of six million houses for the poor. There are also provisions in the budget for roads, cleanliness, housing development, water, health, employment and restructuring sugar factories.

The chief minister also referred to the federal minister’s statement that Bombay will be a financial hub, and organizations like Bombay First and the government of Maharashtra’s special projects wing have already been put on the job, he said.

Speaking about the sops offered in the federal budget for ailing sugar factories in the state, Deshmukh said that the budget had indeed brought good and glad tidings for the sick sugar industry in the state, as the federal finance minister has accepted the report on revitalization of the sector. The sops offered by the finance minister include moratoriums on both interest and principal for two years, he stated.

The chief minister, however, added that the benefits of sops would be passed on only to viable sugar factories, and the proposal of only those sugar factories that would not waste the financial assistance from the federal government would be forwarded.

All sugar factories in Maharashtra are managed by politicians from the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party, and leaders of both the parties have pressurized federal Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar for a bailout package, said a government source.