After Bal Thackeray Memorial being stuck in government’s pipeline for years, now report has surfaced which suggests that the Memorial will be built underground.
According to Mumbai Mirror, this will need no structural changes to the Mayor’s Bungalow in Dadar which is given a grade II-B heritage status. The underground facility will be spread across 9,000 sq ft as the area under the bungalow as also its lawn will be available for construction. The memorial will have a water body around it and will be the only new over-ground structure in front of the bungalow.
The entrance height has been reduced from 1.5 meters to 1.2 meters. The new plan for Bal Thackeray Memorial is designed by architect Abha Narain Lambah. The memorial will also have an open parking space which will be created on the south-east corner of the plot. A Shiv Sena leader told the leading daily, “You will be able to get a glimpse in it of Balasaheb’s life and times. Uddhavji was very clear; that he didn’t want to disturb the Mayor’s bungalow in any way and yet make a very good memorial. So the underground memorial was conceived.”
The memorial was first announced on November 17, 2015, by the state government, where a number of sites were suggested, but the mayor’s bungalow at Shivaji Park, Dadar, was preferred by Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.