MUMBAI: Still in the red and struggling to stabilize its revenue earnings against expenditure, the state government has budgeted Rs450 crore for construction of statutes in the city.

A total of Rs300 crore has been budgeted for the Shivaji memorial in the Arabian Sea and Rs150 crore for the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar memorial at Indu Mill, Dadar.

The state has allotted the tender for construction of the Rs3,600-crore Shivaji memorial to Larson and Turbo at a cost of Rs2,500 crore plus taxes for the first phase of the project. The work order was issued on February 9. Last year, the government had budgeted Rs100 crore for the statue.

Finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said the government aims at completing the project in 36 months. “More funds will be made available as per the pace and need of work through a supplementary budget,” he said.

The Shapoorji Pallonji Group will build the Ambedkar memorial on the 12-acre plot at Indu Mill at a cost of Rs783 crore. The MMRDA appointed the group, which was the sole bidder, for the project’s execution in December 2017. The plan includes a commemorative stupa, an auditorium, an assembly hall, a museum, a library, a landscaped garden and parking spaces. The memorial will have a350-ft tall bronze statue of Ambedkar. Fishermen, however, continue to oppose the proposed site for the Shivaji project, which is 3km inside the Arabian Sea.

