Maharashtra governor SC Jamir on Monday asserted that despite suicides by farmers and burgeoning power deficit, the state continues to attract investments of Rs 1,14,000 crore by steamlining the procedures as well as by offering single window clearance for fast track approvals. Jamir, who took over an additional charge as Maharashtra governor on Sunday, in his address to the both houses of state legislature on the opening day of the seven-week long budget session said that investors have responded quite positively to the state's mega project policy. Jamir informed that during 2007, industrial entrepreneur memorandum and letter of intents involving investment of around Rs 62,600 crore in 454 projects in the state with employment potential of 2.1 lakh have been filed. Letters of intent were issued to 72 private information technology parks and 19 biotechnology units have been registered. According to Jamir, the state continues to lead in the number of special economic zones that have been accorded approval by the Central government, with the total number of approved SEZs going up to 128. However, the power situation continues to be grim. The state governor admitted that the availability of electricity vis-a-vis demand continues to be a daunting challenge. Work on new generation projects at Paras, Parli, Khaperkheda and Bhusawal having aggregate capacity of about 2,000 mw has commenced.