Sawant admitted that the Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) project, which was initiated by former chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar, has been running behind schedule.
Parsekar had kickstarted the ESDM project and had set December 2016 as the deadline to complete the first phase of the project. Spread over 147.58 acres, the ESDM cluster was to be built in two phases and was meant to be focused around two major manufacturing firms which would be the anchor units. However, the foundation stone for the project was laid only in November 2016 at the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Two attempts by Infotech Corporation Goa (ITG) failed to elicit any interest from major manufacturing firms prompting the state to organise an investor meet.