Live
- Ahsaas Channaopens up about her complex character in ‘Mismatched 3’
- Radhika Apte welcomes first child, shares heartfelt post
- Jacqueline dazzles at Da-Bangg Reloaded concert
- Time to boost measures to prevent drowning, save children: WHO
- TDP achieves milestone with 73 lakhs membership registration, says Chandrababu
- South Korea: Main Oppn hails Yoon's impeachment motion passage as 'victory for people, democracy'
- RG Kar issue: Tension flared over parallel protests by Congress, SUCI(C) outside CBI offices
- After furore, Central Railway revokes order to raze Lord Hanuman Temple at Dadar
- Now hoteliers' body in Bengal's Alipurduar shut doors for Bangladeshi tourists
- District Collector Encourages Students to Utilize Government Facilities for a Better Future
How Shivaji statue benefits Maha-if not built
But the Maharashtra government, on October 26, 2016, started work on the world\'s tallest statue – of medieval Maratha monarch Shivaji off Mumbai\'s coast and intends to spend Rs 3,600 crore ($540 million), at current estimates. Since it was first conceived 12 years ago, the budget for the statue has risen 35 times.
,It could pay for a micro-irrigation programme to bring water to thousands of farmers over two years; pay for new rural roads seven times over; electricity projects five times over; restore 300 medieval forts in Maharashtra.
But the Maharashtra government, on October 26, 2016, started work on the world's tallest statue – of medieval Maratha monarch Shivaji off Mumbai's coast and intends to spend Rs 3,600 crore ($540 million), at current estimates. Since it was first conceived 12 years ago, the budget for the statue has risen 35 times.
The state government bypassed legal procedure by getting an exemption on February 5, 2015, from conducting public hearings on the statue's construction – local fishermen say it will affect their fishing grounds, and the island – from the Union Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change.
The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and the BEST electricity utility recently expressed their inability to lay underwater cables to the statue site – 3.5 km out to sea –citing "lack of expertise." Shivaji statue will surpass Patel statue by 8 metres to be tallest in the world. The idea for the Shivaji statue first emerged in 1980. In 2004, the budget was around Rs 100 crore, which jumped to Rs 700 crore in 2009, Rs 1,400 crore in 2013 and Rs 3,600 crore in 2016.
The statue will be the wor'd's tallest at 190 metres, 8 metres taller than Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s 'Statue of Unity,' now under construction in Gujarat and slated for completion in 2018.
Currently, the Veera Abhaya Anjaneya Hanuman Swami in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, is the tallest statue (41 meters) in India, IndiaSpend reported in November 2015.
(In arrangement with IndiaSpend.org, a data-driven, non-profit, public interest journalism platform)
