MMRDA allocates Rs 50 crore for Ambedkar memorial at Indu Mill
HOMAGE The entire project will cost Rs 500 crore, construction likely to begin this year
As a priority project, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has allocated Rs 50 crore for the Babasaheb Ambedkar memorial at Indu Mill at Dadar (West). In the budget of Rs 6,976 crore for 2017-18 which was released on Wednesday the MMRDA aimed at beginning the construction of this memorial this year.
A 350 feet tall bronze statue of Ambedkar will be constructed on 4.84 hectares of land and will have a base structure of 150 metres for pedestrians. The architecture and engineering company Shashi Prabhu and Associates has been appointed to construct this memorial. The entire project will cost Rs 500 crore approximately.
Shashi Parbhu, the architect working on the project, told the Free Press Journal, “Along with the statue there will be an auditorium, meditation area and a pond. The auditorium will have a seating capacity of 1000 people while the pond will be a replica of Chavdar Tale (tasty water lake) where Ambedkar hosted a Satyagraha march in 1927.”
The project will also comprise a dome shaped Buddhist shrine, assembly hall, museum, library, landscape garden and parking spaces. The demolition of the Indu Mill was underway and was completed last week. Dilip Kawathkar, Deputy Metropolitan Commissioner of MMRDA, said, “The land will be handed over to us by the state government in the next two months. After which we will start inviting tenders by June or July and try to start the work by October. Once we get the land, we will chalk out a final plan.”