Mumbai: Terming the beleaguered Dabhol Power Company's (DPC) idle project in Konkan as "a painful story", the US Ambassador to India Robert D Blackwill on February 17 hoped that the project would be restarted and the "US investors get their money back".

"It is an irony that such a state-of-the-art project is not generating any power, it is a painful story", Blackwill told reporters at Mantralaya near Mumbai following his 20-minute meeting with Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde.

However, he hoped that the ambitious project would be restarted and the US investors would get their money back.

Asked whether the issue figured during his talks with the Chief Minister, the visiting dignitary remarked, "appropriate people are working on it at appropriate level".

Blackwill, on a three-day tour to the metropolis, stated that he was eagerly waiting for the February 28 Union Budget and assured that he would "do everything to pump in more foreign direct investment (FDI) here".

Shinde also emphasised that his government's aim was to attract more FDI and described the state "as a natural magnet for US private investment".

Trafficking of children was another issue deliberated upon in the meeting, the US Ambassador said adding, "it is a terrible crime and both India and US are facing it", he added.

Stating that both US and India were facing the threat of AIDS, Blackwill said, "India has undertaken certain methods to counter the threat and we want to use them in USA," he said.

PTI