₹1.5cr for Mumbai’s 6th Shivaji statue at CSTM

Mumbai city news: The cost of the statue will be around Rs1.5 crore and it is likely to be constructed within a year

Twenty-one years after the Victoria Terminus was renamed after the Maratha king Shivaji, the railways now plans to erect his statue.

The state government is also building a grand memorial of the king in the Arabian Sea . The memorial will be built at an estimated cost of Rs3,800 crore, but the construction is yet to take off. (For representation)

The statue will be placed at the entrance of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, on the side of the P D’mello Road. It will cost the state Rs1.5 crore. This will be the sixth major statue of Shivaji in Mumbai on a public land.

The other statues are at Gateway of India, the Mumbai international airport (also named after him), Shivaji Park in Dadar, Juhu beach and Chembur. The state government is also building a grand memorial of the king in the Arabian Sea . The memorial will be built at an estimated cost of Rs3,800 crore, but the construction is yet to take off.

Union Railways minister Suresh Prabhu will lay the foundation stone of the statue at the terminus next week.

Sources said the school presented three designs to the Central Railway authorities, who have sent it forward to the Railway Board for approval. The final decision on the design will be taken by the Railway ministry.

The Maharashtra government has given its nod for the construction.

“The cost of the statue will be around Rs1.5 crore and it is likely to be constructed within a year,” said a Central Railway official.

The official said, “During his visit, Prabhu will also plant trees at a garden on platform 18 of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus.”

For years now, there have been demands from different quarters to erect a Shivaji statue or build a memorial at the station, which has been named after the king, the CR official said.

Recently, after demands by the Maharashtra Legislature, the Railway ministry altered the name of the Central Railway terminus and added ‘Maharaj’ to it.

Read: Shivaji memorial in Mumbai sea: State’s cost estimate ₹2,500 crore, bidders’ is ₹3,826 crore

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