A boat carrying Maharashtra chief secretary D K Jain and some senior state government officials on Wednesday capsized in the Arabian Sea off the Mumbai Coast, the Coast Guard said.

The officials were on the way to the site of the proposed memorial of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, where work was to begin on Wednesday, when it hit a rocky patch, an official said.

The commencement event has been cancelled.

Two helicopters were deployed for rescue work, a Coast Guard official said.

Work on the Shivaji statue, which by some estimates would cost Rs 3,600 crore to make, was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016.

The statue has been a contentious project from the start. The local Koli fishing community was against it because they fear the construction will deplete fish stock in the area.

A section of Mumbai residents feel that the statue is a monumental waste of money.

The Shiv Smarak, which the memorial will be christened, will be the tallest memorial in the world, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had said in 2016.

According to the Maharashtra Public Works Department, the monument includes a 126-metre tall horse of Shivaji, placed on a two-tiered pedestal that is 84 metres in height, reaching an overall height of 210 metres.