No corruption in Shivaji memorial project: Maharashtra PWD Minister

Maharashtra PWD Minister Ashok Chavan on Wednesday told the Legislative Council that no corruption has taken place in the proposed Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial, but said he has noticed escalation of the project cost by around Rs 1,000 crore.

The state government is building the memorial of the 17th century king off the Mumbai coast.

"I have noticed cost escalation by at least Rs 500 crore to Rs 1,000 crore, but I will not term it as corruption immediately. There is a need to conduct a closer inspection of the all the developments," Chavan said in the House.

"So far not a single rupee has been paid to L&T company (which is executing the project)," he added. Chavan, a Congress leader, was speaking while replying to a question raised by NCP member Hemant Takale.

In the past, the Congress and the NCP, which now share power in the state with the Shiv Sena, had accused the then Devendra Fadnavis government of "serious irregularities" in awarding the contract for the project and demanded a judicial probe into the tendering process.

They had also alleged conflict of interest and corruption to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore under the garb of bringing down costs of the memorial project. Chavan, in his reply, also said that the previous government had carried out negotiations with L&T and the height of the memorial had been fixed at 212 metres.

"The reclamation area is 6.80 hectares. The final cost has been fixed at Rs 2,581 crore, excluding GST," he said.

"Special leave petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court and verbal instructions are issued not to proceed with any work. Hence, no work has been undertaken on the project," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone for the memorial project, a flagship programme of the previous BJP-led government, and conducted 'jal poojan' off Mumbai coast in December 2016.

Image Credits: PTI