As Maharashtra celebrates the official anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's birthday today, citizens are asking the government about the proposed museum dedicated to the Maratha king below his grand statue on the Sahar elevated road.

In 2014, Mumbai International Airport Private Limited (MIAL), the company that manages the airport jointly with the government's Airports Authority of India, announced a museum on a 5,000-sq metre plot to display objects and scriptures related to the king and the period of his rule. The museum was to be part of a memorial on a large traffic island located at the junction of the Western Express Highway and the elevated road leading to the city airport's international terminal. This was to be the first museum in memory of the founder of the Maratha empire.

A 20-meter bronze statue now towers over the elevated road. However, there is no museum a decade after the promise. Photographs taken on February 17 reveal an empty cavernous hall where the museum artifacts are supposed to be. Workers were lounging in areas where the exhibits should have been.Sharad Kapuskar, the Pune-based sculptor who designed the statue said that a museum was part of the design for the site. "I have seen the design and the museum was part of the plans when the statue was commissioned," said Kapuskar who worked on the statue between 2010 and 2014. A mock fort was later built around the statue.Former corporator from the area, Nicholas Almeida, a confessed admirer of the Maratha king, said the memorial at the Sahar elevated road was planned after the controversy over the shifting of another statue near the airport during its redevelopment.

"A sangrahalaya (museum) was planned below the statue. This was meant to be a public museum, but not a single artifact of Shivaji Maharaj's history is displayed here. The public has no access to the site," said Almeida.The spokesperson for MIAL said they would need to look into documents to see whether a museum was part of the plans for the site. "We do not know if changes have been made in the plans," the spokesperson added.

Kapuskar said the memorial has not been formally inaugurated because of the frequent changes in government. "The Shiv Sena made an inauguration without involving the government authorities. The whole project has been caught up in political fights. This would not have happened if Balasaheb Thackeray was alive."I will go to the court if they do not start the museum; I have faith in the courts," said Almeida.