Maharashtra government's project of raising a grand statue as the memorial of Chhatrapati Shivaji in the Arabian Sea may face hurdles, with the BMC and Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport (BEST) saying they cannot lay underwater pipelines and cables due to lack of expertise.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the power utility want the work of laying water pipelines and electricity cables to be given to some other agencies.
"So far, the BMC has hardly done any work like the Shivaji memorial, where we will be the sole agency for water supply for daily use. BMC needs to lay pipeline below sea water, But it does not have expertise to carry out such work and it has been already communicated to the government.
"If a separate agency is roped in for construction of the same, then we can supply water," an official of BMC water supply department told PTI.
The state has not communicated its daily requirement of water for carrying out construction as well as once the memorial is opened for people.
A senior engineer of BEST said "during the erstwhile Congress-NCP rule, it was mooted to construct a common duct for water pipeline, electricity cables and for movement of tourists, though it hardly came on paper".
"When the issue of power supply for construction and its regular use at the memorial comes up, we will tell that BEST does not have any expertise for carrying out such under water laying of cables. I think there are some agencies who can construct such ducts. Then we can lay our cables and supply power," the engineer said.
The state government plans to develop the grand memorial of the Maratha warrior king in the Arabian sea off Girgaum chowpatty, which will boast of the tallest statue in the world. A few days back, the government floated a tender quoting the total project cost to be Rs 3,600 crore.
The state government has stated that it would use its own funding and some assistance from the Centre for the project. It has already made a provision of Rs 100 crore for the memorial, which is to be completed by 2019. The cost of the project was estimated to be Rs 700 crore in 2009, although no concrete development took place till last year.
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