Mumbai lost to B'luru, but things are now changing: Fadnavis

MUMBAI: Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis admitted that Mumbai has lost out to Bengaluru, but is now pulling out all stops to woo back startups and businesses to the city. “We lost a lot to Bengaluru, I must agree, because we didn’t create infrastructure and it was unaffordable for businesses to stay in Mumbai. That’s why they went to Bengaluru and Hyderabad. We are creating infrastructure in Mumbai that will bring back that position,” he said at the Nasscom Technology & Leadership Forum (NTLF) in Mumbai on Thursday.

Fadnavis said the 22 km, under-construction Mumbai Trans Harbour Link would be opened later this year or early next year connecting Mumbai with Navi Mumbai, and reduce the travel time significantly. “The new airport is there. That has become the data centre hub in India and 65% of the data centre capacity is here. I think all our initiatives in infrastructure, metro, coastal roads, will reduce the travel time to less than 1 hour from one corner of Mumbai to the other, and rentals will come down too. We are creating a new ecosystem for those who’ve gone to Bengaluru or Hyderabad to come back, and those who are staying here, to stay here,” he added.

Fadnavis said he is also catalysing the startup ecosystem in the state. “India has 80,000 startups and over 100 unicorns. Maharashtra is the real startup capital – out of those 80,000, we have 15,000 registered startups and around 25 unicorns in the state,” he said.

Fadnavis said the government introduced a fintech registry, rolled out an API sandbox, and made an investment outlay of Rs 1,000 crore, which he said had benefited around 8,000 fintechs.