New Delhi [India], July 25 (ANI): Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis met many leaders in Delhi in the last two days to follow up on various development projects in the state.

CM Fadnavis met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Health Minister and BJP National President JP Nadda, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, and officials from NITI Aayog.

The Chief Minister met the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, on Friday at Parliament House. They discussed various projects and issues related to the state of Maharashtra. The meeting lasted for about 25 minutes.

He met with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and requested permission from the Union Ministry of Finance for various projects from global financial institutions. Nirmala Sitharaman praised Maharashtra for maintaining its economy well on all parameters.

These projects include a project to connect villages with a population of 1,000 with concrete roads. For this, financial assistance of 1 billion dollars (about Rs 8,651 crore) has been sought from the Asian Development Bank.

The second project aims to address the issue of rising sea levels in Maharashtra through natural means. For this, assistance of 500 million dollars (about Rs 4,326 crore) has been sought.

The third project involves processing sewage from municipal cities and reusing it for industrial purposes. Financial assistance of 500 million dollars (about Rs 4,326 crore) has been sought for this. Assistance has been sought from the World Bank for the remaining two projects.

Sitharaman instructed the Finance Ministry to approve all three projects during this meeting. Finance Secretary Anuradha Thakur, Chief Economic Advisor Praveen Pardeshi and Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Ashwini Bhide were present at this meeting.

During a meeting with Nadda, the chief minister discussed setting up a large fertiliser project in Vidarbha. This will be a 12.7 lakh tonne project in Nagpur district, a joint venture between GAIL, the Fertiliser Department and the Maharashtra government.

This project will cost around Rs 10,000 crore. A demand has also been made for providing a subsidy for this project. Nadda gave instructions to prepare a cabinet proposal in this regard. Fertiliser Department Secretary Rajat Kumar Mishra was present on the occasion.

Maharashtra has submitted a proposal to the Union Ministry of Rural Development to construct 14,000 km of roads in the state. This total proposal is worth 2.6 billion dollars (about Rs 22,490 crore), and ADB assistance will be taken for this. These roads will be built on the principle of 25 years of maintenance-free.

This will be a very ambitious project for farmers, which will provide them with good connectivity, said Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

The Chief Minister, Fadnavis, demanded help for this project on this occasion. Chouhan congratulated Chief Minister Fadnavis for completing the survey work in the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana very quickly in Maharashtra. It is noteworthy that the Central Government has approved the highest number of 30 lakh houses in the country in Maharashtra.

The Chief Minister also met NITI Aayog CEO BVR Subramanian and member Rajiv Gauba. NITI Aayog praised Maharashtra for maintaining the FRBM limit at 18 per cent, while it was 25 per cent.

Projects like use of Artificial Intelligence for NCD (Non-Communicable Disease) screening, Bamboo based cluster (both projects worth 500 million US dollars each), Marathwada Water Grid and Damanganga-Godavari river linking project along with other water conservation projects (about 1 billion US dollars) and skill training program by linking ITIs in Maharashtra with private industries etc were discussed in detail and presented. NITI Aayog assured that the clearances of these projects will be expedited. (ANI)