Concept plan of the Shivaji Memorial in Arabian Sea. (Source: File Photo)THE Maharashtra government has given administrative approval to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Memorial project in the Arabian sea off Mumbai in a state cabinet meeting last month. The cabinet has given its formal approval to the project’s estimated cost of Rs 3,700 crore.
Officials in the General Administration Department (GAD) said a formal order of the administrative approval would be issued soon. The budgetary provision of the total project cost would be made over the next five years, added the official.
Officials from the Public Works Department said the total project cost includes the cost of the construction of the memorial, at Rs 2890 crore, the sum fixed by the government and contractor Larsen & Toubro (L&T) after discussing the cost optimisation measures to reduce the project cost from the Rs 3,826 crore quoted by L&T.
“Besides the cost of permanent water supply and electricity, forming a special purpose vehicle for operation and maintenance, computerisation and contengencies charges are also included in it,” said the official.
The project, a flagship programme of the BJP-led state government, saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi lay the foundation stone for the memorial and a ‘jal poojan’ in December, 2016. In May, the government had announced that the height of the statue (210 metre) would be increased by two metres, making it 212-metre-tall overall.
However, Vinayak Mete, chairman of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Memorial Project Implementation, Monitoring and Co-ordination Committee, had said on Wednesday that he would demand that height of the Shivaji statue be increased to make it taller than the proposed 221-metre statue of Lord Ram announced by the Uttar Pradesh government.
