After waiting months in vain for Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s appointment for an inauguration, the BMC finally opened Lokshahir Annabhau Sathe auditorium in Byculla recently. The first paid show was organised on the eve of International Women’s Day, which fell on March 8.

After rebuilding what was once an open-air theatre, the developers handed over the new, 761-seater closed auditorium to the BMC in April. The then CM Uddhav Thackeray was supposed to inaugurate it in the last week of June, but the government changed that month and the BMC approached Shinde for a date. However, the civic body did not get a single appointment in the past eight months. It instead ended up spending lakhs of rupees on maintenance even as it waited for the CM to cut the ribbons.