Lone bidder again, hopes fade for Shivaji statue plan.

For a second time in a row, the state government's attempts to start work for a giant Shivaji statue in sea before the Assembly polls have come to naught.

This week, when the re-tendered bids for appointing a project management consultant (PMC) for the Rs 1,900-crore project were opened, it was found once again that only the Indo-French STUP Consultants (Pvt) Ltd submitted its bids. This, despite the fact that many other renowned firms had evinced interest during the pre-bid meeting. These included Penetron, which carried out the waterproofing work on Statue of Liberty, SGS that has been the consultant for several skyscrapers in Dubai and Tata Consulting Engineers Limited.

STUP Consultants is the same firm that was earlier the sole bidder for the proposed Shivaji memorial when tenders were first opened in May this year. However, when the firm failed to qualify, fresh bids had to be issued with less stringent tender conditions in the hope of getting a better response.
Constructing the statue of the Maratha warrior king has been the election manifesto promise of the Congress-NCP alliance in the run-up to every state polls since 2004.

NCP leader and Mumbai's Guardian Minister Jayant Patil, who heads a committee formed to execute the project, blamed the delay on the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF), which is yet to grant clearance to the project. Patil said Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar has reneged on his promise to expeditiously grant the green nod.

'The Sena-BJP doesn’t want construction of the statue to go ahead. I had met Javadekar in Delhi a fortnight ago and submitted an application. He assured me of a speedy clearance for the project within a few days but that never came through,' Patil told Newsline.


THE INDIAN EXPRESS