Chouhan woos NRIs with better infrastructure at Pravasi meet

New Delhi, Jan 8 (UNI) Showcasing better infrastructure and lesser procedural delays in his state, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today called upon the NRIs to explore the possiblities of investing in the state.

Addressing the 5th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations, being attended by around 1200 prominent PIOs from about 50 countries, Mr Chouhan invited them to the NRI meet in Khajuraho on January 16 and 17 and a Global Investors Summit in October at Bhopal.

''We wish to keep a continuous dialogue with NRIs without limiting ourselves to this Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas. I invite you to visit Madhya Pradesh as Seeing is Believing,'' he said.

''The growing confidence of the investors in the state is now reflected in the increasing number of investment proposals that we are now receiving,'' the Chief Minister said.

There was a huge investment potential in providing wireless broad-band connectivity in the state and power distribution specially after the unbundling of the state electricity board.

He claimed that his state was ''industrially most peaceful'' with no strikes and lockouts and with the setting up of a 'Project Clearance and Facilitation Board' procedural delays were non-existent.

Quoting a World Bank report, Mr Chouhan said Madhya Pradesh was among the leading states in public-private partnership initiatives.

He said his government had made significant investments in developing infrastructure achieving 22000 km of roads, an additional power generation capacity of 1800 MW and increased budgetary allocations in road, power and irrigation sectors to the tune of 100 to 600 per cent.

The state has over 12 lakh hectares of agricultural wasteland which has now been made available to the private sector at liberal terms.

He asserted that despite the huge investments the state has been able to maintain the final discipline. ''In the last three years the state treasury has not indulged in overdraft for even a day.'' UNI