Mumbai: Just days after he was sworn in as the chief minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray has made it clear that he would set aside the ambitious works on bullet trains and hyperloop, what he thought to be fancy and marquee infrastructure projects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his predecessor Devendra Fadnavis, respectively, in pursuit of a large 'fish tank'.
The Shiv Sena supremo had earlier indicated he would put these megaprojects on the back burner while pledging to prioritise on key focus areas, like farmers' issues, unemployment, health, social justice and education, as laid out in the common minimum programme (CMP) of the new coalition government of unlikely allies Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress.
The new chief minister had also sanctioned Rs 20 crore for the conservation of the Raigard Fort.
On Monday, Thackeray ordered the state tourism department to draft a proposal to develop a multilevel aquarium in Mumbai, on the lines of Bangkok-based Ocean World*, a popular tourist attraction in Thailand.
He issued the instruction after holding a meeting with Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) officials here.
"Mumbai is an international city. Tourists will start coming to Mumbai via its international cruise terminal. Hence, as a part of it we need to have an international multilevel aquarium in the first stage," Thackeray said.
Former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had earlier expressed his disappointment over the three-party government's CMP saying that it does not take into account the other parts of the state such as north Maharashtra and Marathwada.
He said the programme “is not of a particular region, it [should] represent the entire state.”
The chief minister also reviewed major tourism projects which are under development and also those which have been proposed.
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*Sea Life Bangkok Ocean World, formerly known as Siam Ocean World, is one of the largest aquariums in Southeast Asia. Located two storeys below Siam Paragon shopping mall, it has over 30,000 marine animals from across the world.
