A gazette allowing monuments memorials in coastal regulation zone (CRZ) IV areas has been issued by the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF). This formalizes the go-ahead for the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj memorial in the Arabian Sea.
Senior public works department (PWD) officials said they were awaiting a copy of the notification as it would inform them about the “exemption from a public hearing since the project is in public interest“.
A 190-metre statue of Shivaji will be installed on a rocky outcrop spread over 16 hectares, 1.2 km from Raj Bhavan and 2.6 km from Nariman Point.Construction of the memorial, which will be ready by 2019, will cost Rs.1,900 crore.
The officials said the state government had submitted the environment impact assessment report, the environment management plan and the disaster management plan to the MoEF .
“We had set up a website, shivajimemorial.com, for the public to lodge objections and suggestions. Many suggestions have been incorporated. For instance, we have told the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to set up multi-level car parks. Visitors can park cars there and board buses to the jetty, from where they will be taken by boat to the memorial,'' said C P Joshi, chief engineer, in charge of the project. An earlier proposal to build a sea link from NCPA-Gateway of India to the memorial was shelved after the government decided to build a coastal road.
Joshi said visitors to the memorial would be restricted to 10,000 a day.
There are long-term plans to build a cargo jetty at Navi Mumbai which will also cater to visitors to the monument. Another jetty is proposed at Versova to handle the increase in crowd expected over the years. For the first 10 years, visitors to the memorial will be ferried from the Gateway of India jetty .
Activists are angry that the Centre and state have thought it fit to do away with the public hearing.
Senior public works department (PWD) officials said they were awaiting a copy of the notification as it would inform them about the “exemption from a public hearing since the project is in public interest“.
A 190-metre statue of Shivaji will be installed on a rocky outcrop spread over 16 hectares, 1.2 km from Raj Bhavan and 2.6 km from Nariman Point.Construction of the memorial, which will be ready by 2019, will cost Rs.1,900 crore.
The officials said the state government had submitted the environment impact assessment report, the environment management plan and the disaster management plan to the MoEF .
“We had set up a website, shivajimemorial.com, for the public to lodge objections and suggestions. Many suggestions have been incorporated. For instance, we have told the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to set up multi-level car parks. Visitors can park cars there and board buses to the jetty, from where they will be taken by boat to the memorial,'' said C P Joshi, chief engineer, in charge of the project. An earlier proposal to build a sea link from NCPA-Gateway of India to the memorial was shelved after the government decided to build a coastal road.
Joshi said visitors to the memorial would be restricted to 10,000 a day.
There are long-term plans to build a cargo jetty at Navi Mumbai which will also cater to visitors to the monument. Another jetty is proposed at Versova to handle the increase in crowd expected over the years. For the first 10 years, visitors to the memorial will be ferried from the Gateway of India jetty .
Activists are angry that the Centre and state have thought it fit to do away with the public hearing.
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