In what came as a big boost to the Congress-led DF Government ahead of the 2014 lok Sabha and Assembly polls in Maharashtra, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) on Thursday accorded an “in-principle” approval to its ambitious proposal to install a 309-feet statue of Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji in the Arabian Sea off the Mumbai coast.
Addressing a joint news conference with Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jayanti Natarajan said that her Ministry was granting an “in-principle” approval to the mid-sea Shivaji memorial proposal as “a special case”, keeping in mind the aspirations and emotions of the people of Maharashtra.
The Maharashtra Government has proposed to build a 309 feet statue four km off Marine Drive on an 18 acre islet in the Arabian Sea. The site proposed by the State Government falls under Coastal Regulation Zone-IV, where any of kind of construction activity is prohibited.
Natarajan said the Maharashtra Government had put forward convincing arguments and the statue would be built on a solid rock bed, which is well above the high tide line.
She however, said that no commercial activity could be undertaken at the site.
On his part, the chief minister said that a total of 40 different approvals would have to be obtained before beginning the construction of the memorial.
The state government’s project involves installation of 309 ft tall equestrian statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji in the Arabian Sea off the Mumbai coast -- along the lines of the 305 ft statue of liberty in New York harbour.
The state government has already identified a 16.5-hectre bedrock which would be used for erecting the statue. Another 12 hectare area surrounding the rock would be developed suitably to make it tourist attraction.
The state government would be factoring the mode and availability of transportation for local people and tourists visiting the site, in the project.
Interestingly enough, the Maharashtra government is pushing the Shivaji memorial project vigorously in the run-up to the 2014 lok Sabha and Assembly polls in Maharashtra.
The Congress-led DF government, it may be recalled, had “in-principle” approval to the mid-sea Shivaji statue project in August 2009, in the run up to the state Assembly polls.
At that time the state government had also approved the project designs prepared by the Bensley Design Studios, Thailand and Team One Architects, Mumbai.
Estimated then to cost Rs 300 crore, the project involved construction of a Shivaji memorial on a mulch-utility complex including a museum on the Maratha war*ior, water sports facilities and a revolving restaurant, on four hectare plot land in the Arbian Sea, one km from the shore.
However, the project hit the road block as the location was in the highly restrictive coastal regulation zone and that it involved reclamation of land in the sea.
The state government had then made a presentation of the project before former Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh who reportedly expressed reservations over the project. Subsequently, the MoEF conveyed its inability to grant environmental clearance to the Shivaji statue project.
Following the rejection of its earlier proposal, the state government appointed a team of experts to suggest a new location for the project. The team, after feasibility surveys of three sites in the Arabian Sea, zeroed on a location, situated between Raj Bhavan and Navy Nagar, for the project.
The site that the state government has now identified for the Shivaji memorial is an 18 acre islet, located 4 km off the Marine Drive in south Mumbai.
According to the proposal, the memorial will – apart from the statue of Shivaji -- house an open-air theatre, a library and a museum showcasing the Maratha warrior’s life.