As the Opposition BJP screamed foul, an official said that at least nine of the grandiose projects were worth a staggering '10.28 lakh crore, while the other 1,200-plus smaller projects were worth around '8 lakh crore, taking the total to nearly Rs18 lakh crore. "With a total debt of '6.71 lakh crore and another '18 lakh crore to be spent, the crucial question before the cash-strapped government is where will all this money come from," the official asked.

Meanwhile, Thackeray has demanded that since the state contributed nearly half the total tax revenues to the Central exchequer, the Centre should 'waive' off (the state's contribution) for two years, which could help it wipe off all its debts at one shot.

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This demand has been a matter of debate in political circles since the past few years, but to Thackeray's credit, no past chief minister showed the courage to utter it publicly. Some of the big-ticket projects include Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train, the world's biggest petrochemicals complex at Nanar, the Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway and several Metro projects.

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