Shivaji Memorial: Maharashtra Tweaks Design Of To Be World’s Tallest Statue

The Maharashtra government has tweaked dimensions of the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji, which will come up at a memorial in the sea, in order to save costs, Indian Express has reported. It has, however, retained the overall height of the proposed statue, which will be the world’s tallest when constructed.

While the overall height of the statue will be 212 meters, the height of Shivaji Maharaj is reduced by 7.5 m. The height of the sword is expected to be increased by the same length to compensate the reduction. The original length of the base has also been reduced proportionately for aesthetic reasons.

This change will reduce the cost of the statue by Rs 338.94 crores. Indian Express accessed the information through a Right To Information application.

Opposition parties in Maharashtra had alleged that the government had reduced the height of the statue a week after it had issued a Letter of Acceptance for the project to Larsen and Turbo (L&T) on 1 March 2018 .

The government had denied these allegations.

The cost of the contract issued to L&T is Rs 2500 crore. It had originally quoted Rs 3826 crore in the first round of bidding, but revised it after negotiations.