Dandi Memorial will be ready by January: Tushar Gandhi

AHMEDABAD: As the world gears up for ‘Gandhi 150’ in 2019 with a slew of events, one of the most significant landmarks in the Indian Independence movement will get a memorial by January 2019. The National Salt Satyagraha Memorial at Dandi, commemorating the historic Dandi March of 1930 against the salt tax, is in its final stage.
Tushar Gandhi, the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and a member of the high-power committee for the memorial, said that they are hopeful of completing the remaining work by the end of January 2019.



“The project posed technical challenges. It has life-size statues of Mahatma Gandhi and his 78 associates who completed the march in 1930. The designing went through some changes and we also had to seek help of experts from IIT-Bombay. The memorial has 26 murals, 3D paintings and other artwork that would depict the event and its impact,” said Gandhi. After announcement in 2011, the project has run into delays.

Gandhi was speaking on the sidelines of the launch of ‘Dandi Salt Challenge 2019’ in Ahmedabad. The challenge has three events of running, walking and cycling. While 400-km running and cycling would start from Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad and end at Dandi, the 70-km walk would start from Bhimrad — the actual spot of Mahatma’s famous photograph of picking up salt — and end at Dandi along with two other events on March 23.