Ambedkar statue to stand at 450 ft as state increases height by 100 ft

“The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will now change the design and also calculate the cost escalation,” senior officials from the agency said, on condition of anonymity.

Ambedkar statue to stand at 450 ft as state increases height by 100 ft he statue of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar proposed to come up at a memorial in Indu Mills, Dadar, will now be 450-feet tall, after the Maharashtra government decided to increase its height by 100 feet.

Ambedkar statue to stand at 450 ft as state increases height by 100 ft he statue of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar proposed to come up at a memorial in Indu Mills, Dadar, will now be 450-feet tall, after the Maharashtra government decided to increase its height by 100 feet. (Rahul Raut/HT PHOTO)

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis passed the order on June 13.

“The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will now change the design and also calculate the cost escalation,” senior officials from the agency said, on condition of anonymity.

While reasons for the change in design are not known, officials said the decision was taken based on demands made by various Ambedkar groups and keeping in mind the upcoming Assembly elections.

The memorial is under construction at the Indu Mills premises in Dadar and is being built at a cost of ₹763.05 crore.

The design for the Ambedkar memorial, which is being constructed on 12 acres of land, includes a library, a replica of the historic Chavdar pond in Raigad, a number of viewing points and a parking lot. The memorial will be a stone’s throwaway from Chaityabhoomi, where Ambedkar’s ashes were interred.

MMRDA, which is the nodal agency for the project, has spent ₹98 crore till March 2019. The work is expected to be completed by February 2021, Fadnavis said in the on-going session of the state legislature. HT tried contacting Fadnavis through SMS, but there was no response.

“The idea is to compete with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s statue [Statue of Unity] in Gujarat,” an official, associated with the project, said. The statue of Unity, which is dedicated to India’s first home minister, stands at 597 feet.

MMRDA is also building a memorial for the late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, at Dadar.

On Tuesday, the state also announced a memorial in Mumbai for the late BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and a statue of Lokmanya Tilak at Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi.