Ambedkar Statue of Equality only 47% complete
The B.R. Ambedkar memorial in Mumbai faces delays, with only 47% of the statue completed; completion now pushed to March 2027 due to disputes and funding issues.
MUMBAI: Even though chief minister Devendra Fadnavis declared on B R Ambedkar’s death anniversary on Friday that the memorial to the architect of the Indian Constitution at Dadar’s Indu Mill would be completed at a faster pace, its construction, like any other infrastructure project, has been plagued by repeated delays. Despite the government’s directions to expedite the construction, the main statue—the third tallest in the world—is less than half complete.
According to officials of MMRDA, the nodal agency overseeing the project, while the main statue’s replica is completely ready, only 47% of the work on the actual one has been completed. Other elements shaping up on the 11.96-acre plot of the defunct Indu Mill are the building entrance, which is 88% ready, memorial building (52%), auditorium (63%), lecture hall (78%), library (80%) and basement parking (95%). MMRDA officials said that the causes of delay included a dispute with the Ambedkar family on the statue’s design, the pandemic lockdown and a shortage of funds.
MMRDA’s concept plan was a 350-feet bronze-clad Ambedkar statue, called the Statue of Equality, on a 100-feet pedestal. Uttar Pradesh-based sculptors Ram Sutar and Anil Sutar of Ram Sutar Fine Arts were brought on board in April 2023.
The main statue is being sculpted in UP. An MMRDA official said that on nearing completion, it would be brought piece by piece to Indu Mill and put together. So far, only 31 metric tonnes of bronze of the total 870 metric tonnes to build the statue have been procured.
While politicians and bureaucrats give annual assurances on Mahaparinirvan Diwas that the work will be expedited, the project has seen many twists and turns.
It was in April 2013 that the state decided to appoint MMRDA to build a memorial of Dr Ambedkar as a tribute to his contribution to society. When the project was first rolled out with the foundation stone laying ceremony held in 2015, the deadline was mid-2018. However, the contract itself was awarded in February 2018 to Shapoorji Pallonji and Company, and the project’s deadline was rescheduled to February 2021.
The state government went on to revise the statue’s height from the earlier 350 feet to 450 feet in early 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic and a dispute with Ambedkar’s grandsons, Prakash and Anandraj Ambedkar, on the memorial’s design further pushed the deadline to early 2024. Even before the 2024 deadline arrived, however, MMRDA officials had to revise the timeline to December 2025 due to the sluggish pace of construction.
“With the current scenario and status of construction, the library, auditorium, entrance, parking, halls, souvenir shop, meditation centre etc will be ready in 2025 but not the Statue of Equality,” said an MMRDA source. “That has now been rescheduled to March 2027.”
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