Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar today presented the budget for the financial year 2025-26 in Maharashtra’s legislative assembly with key provisions for industries, infrastructure, agriculture and allied sectors among others.
While presenting the budget, Pawar today said that the state has been successful in keeping the fiscal deficit below three percent of gross state domestic income under the Fiscal Responsibility and Fiscal Management Act. He added that the expenditure is likely to be 7.20 Lakh Crore rupees while the revenue receipts are estimated to be around five lakh 60 thousand and 964 crore rupees.
Mr Pawar said the budget proposal has been prepared to realise the motto of ‘Viksit Bharat – Viksit Maharashtra’. Stating that the new Industrial Policy for 2025 will be announced soon, the minister said the aim will be to attract investment worth 40 lakh crore rupees and create 50 lakh jobs over the next five years.
Mr Pawar said the Mumbai Metropolitan Region will be developed as a “Growth Hub” with planning being made to establish international-level business centres at seven locations. The objective will be to increase MMR’s economy from the current 140 billion dollars to 300 billion dollars by 2030 and eventually to 1.5 trillion dollars by 2047. With the Navi Mumbai Airport set to begin operations in April this year, the state government has announced plans to open a third airport near the Vadhavan Port. Mr Pawar also announced the plan to establish an Innovation City spread across 250 acres in Navi Mumbai.
Talking about road construction, Mr Pawar said the construction of 1500 kilometres of roads under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana will be completed in 2025-26. Besides, more than 3500 villages will be connected to major district roads, state highways, or national highways via cement concrete roads stretching over 14,000 kilometres at a cost of over thirty thousand crore rupees.
Talking about the agriculture sector, the state finance minister said the second phase of Nanaji Deshmukh Krishi Sanjivani Project will be implemented in seven thousand and 201 villages at an outlay of 351.42 crore rupees. Mr Pawar said close to 1.5 lakh works costing four thousand and 227 crore rupees will be undertaken and completed under Jalyukt Shivar Campaign 2.0 by March 2026. The minister proposed aan llocation of five thousand and 36 crore rupees for the improvement of the canal distribution system and a 500 crore fund for using “Artificial intelligence” to improve the agriculture sector. The state has also proposed to allocate 255 crore rupees under the National Natural on Farming Mission and four thousand and 300 crore worth of bamboo plantation projects will also be implemented.
For the housing sector, Mr Pawar said the aim is to achieve the goal of “Housing for All” in the next five years. He informed that the government has approved cthe onstruction of 20 lakh houses in the next year under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Rural) Phase-2 and proposes the allocation of eight thousand and 100 crore rupees for the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban).
The outlay of 3,939 crores has been proposed for Jal Jeevan Mission in 2025-26 while thousand and 484 crore has been allocated for Phase 2 of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Rural) for 2025-26.
To achieve the aim of women-led development, the state has proposed an allocation of 36 thousand crore rupees under the Mukhya Mantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana which is expected to benefit around 2.53 crore women. The state has set a target of 24 lakh “Lakhpati Didis” and has proposed to set up a UMED mall in every district.
The state has proposed to earmark a minimum of 1 percent of the District Annual Plan fund for the welfare of Divyangjan and another 1 percent for the maintenance and repair of sports complexes.
Mr. Pawar said the state will soon introduce a new health and senior citizens’ policy.
The state has proposed an outlay of one lakh crore rupees for the development of the tourism sector over the next ten years. The state has proposed to built a grand memorial of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in Agra and Panipat, a grand memorial of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj in Sangameshwar in Konkan and for Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Mumbai.
In view of the Simhastha Kumbh Mela in Nashik in 2027, the state plans to spend 146.10 crore rupees for the development of Ramkund, Kalaram Temple, and Goda riverbank in Nashik under the Ramkal Path Development Project and undertake a “Namami Godavari” campaign
