On investment, there’s no match for us, says Gujarat

“No unit which had signed an MoU with us has moved to any other state. Show me one unit which has not been able to start because of the state government’s fault,” challenged Saurabh Patel, Gujarat’s cabinet minister for energy, petroleum & petrochemicals, tourism and industries in an exclusive interview.

Patel said if any project has not taken off, it was because due to lack of environmental clearances from the Centre, inability to get finance or financial problems at the company concerned. Pointing to SEZ projects stuck in Gujarat after the change in central policy, Patel said: “Recently, even Reliance denotified almost 40% of its SEZ because it was no longer viable for them.”

“Our ratio of turning MoUs into tangible projects is higher than every state and the national average,” Patel claimed.

About Gujarat selling some land allotted to Peugeot because it could not pay up, Patel said the multinational automaker had informed them that it was facing problems globally and was not in a position to invest at this stage.

“Peugeot may go ahead once it recovers. The delay and rescheduling are not because we failed on any count,” Patel asserted. He attributed the industry’s preference for Gujarat to the government’s practice of resolving issues on a one-to-one basis. “When Maruti showed interest to set up a plant here,

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