Contesting the Opposition’s charge that the height of the mid-sea Chattrapati Shivaji statue was being reduced to 126 meters, Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said in the State Assembly on Wednesday that the proposed monument would be 210 meters as had been proposed earlier.

Replying to a charge made by former deputy Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and leader of the Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, both from the Congress and senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar, Mungantiwar clarified:”There is no need for any doubts in the minds of the Opposition. The mid-sea Shivaji statue will be as tall as 210 meters as had been proposed earlier”.

Earlier, Patil had expressed apprehension that the State Government was planning to bring down the height of the mid-sea Shivaji statue was being reduced to 126 meters. including the height of its pedestal.

Earlier in his initial reply, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis assured the House that the proposed Shivaji statue would be the tallest in the world.”Let me assure you that the statue of Shivaji Maharaj would be the tallest in the world. We are starting the work on the construction of the monument now," he said.

Fadnavis hastened to take a dig at the previous DF Government for not taking any initiative in constructing the monument.”During the last 15 years, you (Congress and NCP) could not lay a single brick,” he said. The Finance Minister’s assurance to the that there was no plan to reduce the height of the Shivaji statue did not satisfy the Opposition members, who raised slogans demanding a discussion on the issue. This led to a brief adjournment of the House which lasted for 10 minutes.

When the House reassembled, Cultural Affairs Minister Vinod Tawde said that the height has not been reduced and the work would be completed during the tenure of BJP-led Government. However, miffed Opposition members staged a walkout from the House.

The Chief Minister reiterated that there was no question of reducing the height of the monument”Whatever the height that had earlier approved has been retained,” he said.

The Chief Minister‘s clarification about the height of the Shivaji statue came less than a week after the Maharashtra Government handed over the”Letter of Acceptance” (LoA) to the infrastructure major L & T and giving a go-ahead to the latter for the start of statue construction.

In a tweet put out after his government handed over LoA to L & T on March 1, the chief minister had tweeted:”Historic day it is! 15 long years’ wait is over!! We handed over the ‘Letter of Acceptance’ to L&T for the grand memorial of our Great King Chhatrapati ShivajiMaharaj in the Arabian Sea, at Vidhan Bhavan, Mumbai”.

“Maharashtra and our Nation have waited for 15 long years for this monument of pride for every Indian. Gave directions to start the actual work before monsoon. It is our government that took every permission for this grand memorial in a record time,” the chief minister had stated.

As part of the clarification, Fadnavis said in the State Assembly on Wednesday that the estimated cost of the project is Rs 2,500 crore.

The go-ahead for the start of work on the Chhatrapati Shivaji memorial project comes 16 months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed the jal-poojan and bhoomi-poojan of the grand memorial of great Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in the Arabian Sea.

The equestrian statue of the great Maratha warrior king will come up on a rocky islet around 3.5 km from the Marine Drive in south Mumbai. The statue is expected to be taller than the 305 ft statue of Liberty in New York harbour.