A year after ground breaking ceremony, the proposed grand memorial of Dr Ambedkar at the defunct Indu Mill in Dadar is still lying on papers.
Among other reasons such as delay in allocation of funds, finalising the deisgn and red tape at the centre and state both, the project is also stuck in CRZ rules, dna has learnt.
Over 6.4 acre of the total 12 acre Mill land allocated for the memorial falls under the highly restricted coastal regulation zone (CRZ).
"The government now plans to use the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority’s contentious redefinition of the Mahim shore as a bay to pull 6.4 acres of the Indu Mill land out of the CRZ," said a highly placed official from the environment department.
Tenders for the Rs450 crore project have not been floated yet because of pending issues. Rajkumar Badole, social justice minister, admitted the delay and promises to iron out the issues under his purview. "For the CRZ, the environment department and MMRDA are working to address the issue."
The government has plans to use the 12-acre mill land in Dadar’s Prabhadevi for building a grand memorial of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar with 4 lakh square feet built up area. The Memorial will have 350 feet high statue, taller than Statue of Liberty.
Centre-owned National Textile Corporation (NTC), which is in possession of the land, has agreed to transfer it to the state in lieu of compensation in the form of floating floor space index or buildable space.
