It’s raining projects over region and city in particular as Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis tabled the State budget on Friday. Fadnavis announced establishment of Maharashtra Public Health Institute and a State-level Data Centre at Nagpur. Along side, he also outlined the idea for a Timber Museum to come up at Chandrapur to further the research and conserve timber species. Also, Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Education Hub was announced for Amravati to house all education department offices under one roof. Further in the budget, Chief Minister said, Gadchiroli is going to become a steel hub with expected investment of Rs 2.6 lakh crore in next few years. Also, State gave green signal for Nava Nagpur, a financial hub, and third Ring Road for city. MPHI, that is going to be set up in city, is going to have collaboration with Indian Public Health Institute (IPHI), a premier national institute that offers specialised master programmes in health sector.

 

The idea behind formation of the State-level institute is that it would work on the lines of AIIMS and IIM for strengthening the training and research in public health domain. Financial Hub: Apart from that, Chief Minister also gave green signal to Nava Nagpur, a business-cum-financial hub, to come up in Hingna tehsil. Similarly, the second Outer Ring Road of Nagpur has also been sanctioned. These two projects are aimed at channelling the economic growth in proper direction. As to Business Hub, it is envisaged as business district on the lines of international financial centre. The plan is to house all trade related activities and financial dealing at one place by leveraging the central location of city.

 

Another idea is that post GST, Nagpur is going to act as hub for transit related shipments, the finance hub would compliment it. River Interlink: Chief Minister also said Wainganga-Nalganga river inter-link project would take off. At present, the DPR is under preparation and the project cost is pegged at Rs 94,968 crore but the actual budgetary allocation for the current financial year is not yet known. The inter-linking aims to create irrigation for 4,04,281 Ha farm land in Eastern and Western Vidarbha. Film City: Similarly, the Government is also announced the project of film city at Navargaon in Ramtek. This would be third film city in Maharashtra. Also, the State said it plans to commission a documentary on ancient poet Kalidas so that future generation will know more about him. Teak Museum: The budget also outlined plan to conserve the species of timber that is unique to Chandrapur district.

 

A teak museum is proposed to be established at Ballarpur. The Timber Museum and Zylerium would work to carry out research and conserve the timber species. Education Hub: At Amravati, the different offices of Education Department would come under one roof and same would be called Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Education Hub, said the Chief Minister in his budget speech. Steel Hub: As already highlighted, Gadchiroli is going to have steel hub where project with an financial outlay of Rs 2.61 lakh crore are going to come-up within next decade. These investment would create 70,898 jobs. Further State is going to plant 5 crore saplings to compensate for loss of trees in relation to setting-up of steel industries in the region.