The Mantralaya makeover plan is becoming a contentious issue for the Congress-led Democratic Front government as the project has proved to be a non-starter for a while now. At a time when there already exist some political issues between alliance partners Congress and NCP over the proposal, the lowest bidder is learnt to have refused to bring down the asking price for the project.

Gutted: A fire on June 21 destroyed a vast portion of Mantralaya, resulting in calls for revival of the makeover proposal mooted a few years ago. File pic