Thaindian News

Gandhinagar, May 1 (IANS) Gujarat kicked off a year of festivities to mark it’s golden jubilee when Chief Minister Narendra Modi, accompanied by former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani, Saturday laid the foundation stone of a Mahatma Mandir to be built here at an estimated cost of Rs.100 crore.
“This edifice will reflect (Mahatma) Gandhi’s life and philosophy on the one hand and the prosperity of Gujarat on the other,” Modi said at a function to mark the commencement of the project.

The proposed Mahatma Mandir, spread over 34 acres, will have a business centre, exhibition halls, a memorial and garden on Gandhi and a suspension bridge in memory of the Dandi march. The piers of the suspension bridge will have windmills.

The memorial is designed in the form of a salt mount since the salt ’satyagraha’ (movement) was an important milestone in country’s freedom struggle. The salt mount would house a meditation hall and museum.

The Gandhi garden will have life size sculptures of Mahatma Gandhi.

The suspension bridge will connect the Gandhi garden to the salt mount.

On December 31, 1929, Gandhi led the Dandi march from his Sabarmati ashram to Dandi in Gujarat to produce salt without paying tax, with a large number of Indians joining him along the way.

When Gandhi broke the salt laws at Dandi April 6, 1930, it sparked large scale acts of civil disobedience by millions of Indians against the British rule.

The chief minister said that the convention centre and the exhibition centre have been designed keeping international standards to facilitate global meets and international

level exhibitions.

The multi-purpose convention centre will have column-free air conditioned halls with different seating capacities. In theatre-style seating, it will have a capacity of 5,000.

The project has been designed by and is being executed by Larsen and Toubro.

“Work on the project is beginning right and the first phase will be completed this day a year later,” Modi said.