'If stainless steel had been used, Shivaji Maharaj statue would have never collapsed': Nitin Gadkari

Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said that the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue in Sindhudurg would not have collapsed if the state government, the Indian Navy and other professionals associated with the project would have taken care of this one thing.

According to Gadkari, the statue would not have collapsed had stainless steel been used to make the statue in Sindhudurg. On August 26, a 35-foot statue of the Hindu warrior king collapsed nearly 9 months after being unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

He also said that he has been advocating the use of stainless steel for the construction of bridges built close to the sea. "If stainless steel had been used for the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji, it would have never collapsed," Gadkari said at a recent FICCI event. 

He also recounted his experience of implementing the construction of 55 flyovers in Mumbai. Gadkari also mentioned that he believes stainless steel should be used for any construction activity within 30 kms from the sea. 

"When I was implementing the construction of 55 flyovers in Mumbai, one person took me for a ride. He put some powder-coating on iron rods and said those were rust-proof. But there was rusting. Now, I feel in all roads within 30 kms from the sea, stainless steel should be used," the Union Minister said. 

Meanwhile, local police has issued a lookout notice against Jaydeep Apte, the 24-year-old sculptor from Kalyan who made the 35-feet-tall Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue at the Rajkot Fort in Sindhudurg's Malvan. Since nearly 10 days, Apte is missing and untraceable.

Seven teams of the Malvan police have been mobilised to locate the sculptor. The teams mobilised to locate Apte comprise top officers from various districts.

Chetan Patil, structural consultant associated with the statue project, has been arrested. He claimed that he worked on the platform and not the statue. 

Patil said that he submitted the platform's design to the Indian Navy through the Public Works Department (PWD) but had nothing to do with the statue itself. 

"A Thane-based company did the statue-related work. I was just asked to work on the platform on which the statue was being erected," he was quoted as saying by newswire PTI. 

Apte owns an art company in Kalyan and does not have any experience of constructing large statues. The largest statue that Apte sculpted prior to Shivaji's statue was around 2-feet-tall.

Moreover, a piece in Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece Saamna stated that despite no prior experience, Apte was awarded the contract because he was an acquaintance of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's son Shrikant Shinde.