Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, during a press conference in Mumbai, recalls his days as the state minister in 1995. Gadkari said, "I rejected a tender by Reliance for the Mumbai-Pune express highway. Dhirubhai (Ambani) was there at that time, and he was very upset with me. My chief minister was also upset and so was Balasaheb Thackeray. They asked me why did you do it? I said we will raise money from the public for that project and other projects like the Bandra-Worli Sea link; everyone was laughing at me. We went to several investors for the project, and now investors are coming to us."