In a move that will gladden the hearts of Dalits across the State, the Maharashtra Government on Wednesday decided to increase the height of proposed statue of late BR Ambedkar at the Indu Mills compound in north-central Mumbai, by 100 more feet taking it to a height of 350 ft.
Talking to media persons after the Sate Cabinet approved the increase in the Dalit icon’s statute, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said: “The height of Dr Ambedkar’s statue will be raised from the earlier 250 feet to 350 feet. It will be erected on a pedestal of the height of 100 feet. In essence, the collective height of the broze statue will be 450 feet”.
The defunct Indu Mill plot is located right next to the Chaityabhoomi at Dadar Chowpatty, where late Dr Ambedkar was cremated a day after he passed away on December 6, 1956.
“The work on the construction of the Ambedkar had been hanging fire for the last couple of the years. In order to expedite the construction, we took several important decisions today. We expect to complete the construction of memorial in the next two years. Once completed, we will get to see a beautiful and architecturally fabulous memorial, a monument we will all be proud of,” Pawar said.
“Being the Finance Minister, I will ensure that there will not be any dearth of funds for the project,” Pawar said.
There will be elements of the Buddhist architecture in the Ambedkar memorial, which is coming up on a 12 acre plot of land. While 68
per cent of the land will be open lawn, there will be a training centre that can accommodate 400 people, a state-art auditorium and a museum-cum-exhibition hall at the memorial.
The State Government has appointed M/s Shashi Prabhu and Associates as Consultants for the project.
It may be recalled that October 11, 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the grand memorial of Babasaheb Ambedkar at the Indu Mills compound.
