Delay in Shivaji memorial due to tech difficulties: Devendra Fadnavis

MUMBAI: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today informed the Legislative Council the delay in execution of a project for construction of a memorial for Chhatrapati Shivaji is due to "technical difficulty" in plan.

"The project is to be completed within a time frame of 40 months as per the plan prepared by Project Management Consultant (PMC)," Fadnavis said.

Relying to a starred question raised by Sanjay Dutt (Congress) and others, the Chief Minister said benchmarks have been laid down as to which works are to be completed by when.

"The delay in execution of the project plan for the construction of the grand memorial of Chhatrapati Shivaji is due to technical difficulty in the plan," he added.

Replying to supplementaries over delay in Bhoomi Pujan for the proposed memorial, Fadnavis said a suitable date is yet to be finalised.

"Some dates in the month of May are being short listed where the duration of the low tide is sufficient to carry out the ceremony," the CM added.

He assured the House funds for the project shall be released on time and there will be no shortage of it.

Fadnavis also said, during the previous Congress-led regime, the government had twice rejected permissions as officials had raised objections of Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) violations.

"This government made amendment to the CRZ rules," he said.

The Chief Minister claimed the then Congress Chief Minister had first met then Union Minister for Environment and Forest Jayram Ramesh and later his successor Jayanti Natrajan, but permissions were not granted.

Fadnavis said his government has now managed to get all the 12 necessary permissions from all the agencies concerned.