THE Public Works Department  (PWD) Assistant Engineer Malvan Division had shot off a warning letter to the Indian Navy’s Area Coastal Security Officer Commander Abhishek Karbhari on the precarious condition of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue which crashedonAugust26intheFort Rajkot at Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district, officials said on Tuesday. BesidesPWD,the13thdirect descendent of the legendary Maratha warrior king, ChhatrapatiYuvrajChhatrapati had also red-flagged the statue’s design, and how it was erectedin‘haste’fortheunveilingbyPrimeMinisterNarendra Modi on December 4, 2023. A PWD letter (August 20, 2024)forewarned that the nuts bolts that were used to join the pieces in the metal statue - designedandcreatedbyKalyan (Thane) sculptorJaydeepApte – hadrusted and corroded due to the twin effects of the monsoon and the salty airfrom the Arabian Sea.

 

As a result of these, the Chhatrapati’s statue was looking ugly, attracting criticism from the locals, public representatives and hordes of tourists trooping there. The PWD urged Navy Commander Karbhari to take up the matter at his level with the sculptorto work out a permanent solution to the problems on top priority, but the cautionary went unheeded. The missive added that in June – barely six months after the statue was unveiled – Apte had gonethere andcarriedout certain repair works on the structure. Locals had also frowned at the quality of the statue as the work order for the CSM statue was issued on September 8, 2023 and it was unveiled after barely 85 days. Speaking to a local Marathi publication last year, sculptor Apte indicated that normally such a statue would have taken three years to make, but he managedtocompleteitinbarely six months

 

 

 

MAHARASHTRA Deputy Chief Minister Devendra FadnavisonTuesdaysaidthat the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj which collapsedinSindhudurgdistrict a day ago was built by the Navy, but the State Government hasnow decided to install a bigger statue of the Maratha warrior king at the same place. The 35-foot statue of the 17thcenturyMarathaempire founder, unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Rajkot fort in Malvan tehsil of Sindhudurg on Navy Day (December 4) last year, collapsedonMondayafternoon. Speakingtoreportershere, Fadnavis said, “The constructionofthestatuewasnot overseen by the State GovernmentbutbytheNavy. The individuals responsible forthefabricationandinstallation of the statue might have overlooked important local factors, such as high wind speed and the quality of the iron used. The statue might have become more prone to rustdue to its exposure to ocean winds.” It is a question now whether the makers of the statuehadcomprehendedall these factors before making it,the senior BJP leader said. “It is ourresolve to build a bigger statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj at the same site,” he added. An inquiry into the statue collapseincidentwasunderway, he said. NAVY SAYS TEAM DEPUTED TO PROBE CAUSE OF THIS ‘UNFORTUNATE ACCIDENT’: A DAY after a giant statue of Maratha warrior kingChhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj collapsed in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg, the Indian Navy on Tuesday said it has deputed a team to immediately investigate the cause of this “unfortunate accident”. TheIndianNavynoteswith “deep concern” the damage caused to the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj thatwasunveiledontheNavy DayasadedicationtothecitizensofSindhudurg,according to a statement by the naval force issued by its spokesperson.