Opposition alleges irregularities, graft in Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial project

Ahead of Assembly polls in the state, the opposition has alleged corruption and irregularities in the proposed Chhatrapati Shivaji memorial project in the Arabian sea. It alleged that the Centre Vigilance Commission (CVC) guidelines were blatantly flouted while allotting the tender and changing the specification of the proposed statue.Maharashtra government had allotted this ambitious project to L&T at Rs 3,800 crore recently with the certain specification such as the structure height 121.2 metres, the height of the statue was 83.2 m metres, while the sword part 38 metre in the original tender documents.However, the L&T negotiated the cost of the project decreasing from Rs 3,800 crore to Rs 2,500 Crore. They even changed the specification of the project. Such as the main statue height was reduced from 83.2 m to 75.7 metre while they increased the sword height from 38 metres to 45.5 m and the structure height was kept as it is 121.2 m. The total memorial area was also reduced from 15.6 hectares to 12.8 hectares.Nawab Malik, NCP spokesperson alleged that while changing the specification, the government did not follow the CVC guidelines. "The tender specifications were changed. The alteration in the structure and statue was also done. These are serious irregularities. While doing this, the state government should have called the fresh tender. How can they give the tender to the same bidder? This is violations of the CVC guidelines," alleged Nawab Malik.