The Maharashtra government has awarded the contract to build the Shivaji statue in the Arabian Sea, to Larsen and Toubro (L&T). The state government gave the letter of acceptance to L&T that will build the memorial at a cost of Rs 2,500 crore on an engineering, procurement and construction model.

The government has selected L&T from three bidders (the others being Reliance Infrastructure and Afcons Infrastructure) in the second round of bidding. While RInfra lost the bid on technical competition round, Afcons quoted a project cost of Rs 4,779 crore.

The statue will be built on 6.8 hectare of reclaimed land in the middle of the Arabian Sea off the Malabar Hill in south Mumbai. It will have a temple, museum, hospital, entrance modelled on the Raigad Fort, which was the headquarters of the emperor, and a theatre showcasing highlights of the Maratha warrior king?s life. A lift will take visitors right up to 180 m or 60 floors inside the memorial, giving them a view from such height.