Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is holding review meetings on the progress of works at regular intervals on Ambedkar Smriti vanam at Swaraj Maidan in Vijayawada, but the inauguration eludes.
The Chief Minister will hold a review meeting on the progress of the works on Smriti vanam at his camp office at Tadepalli near Vijaywada on Monday (November 27, 2023).
The State government launched the prestigious project in 2020 with an estimated budget of ₹268 crore, and the Chief Minister laid a foundation stone in June 2020. The government had planned to open the memorial park for the public on Dr. B R Ambedkar Jayanti.
The programme has been postponed on many occasions due to slow progress in the work. The latest deadline was April 14, 2023. The government even formed a high-level committee to monitor the progress in the work of Dr. BR Ambedkar Smriti Vanam. Mr. Jagan asked the officials to expedite the works to ensure that the 125-foot bronze statue of Dr BR Ambedkar was inaugurated on April 14, 2023, on his birth anniversary as scheduled. But, it did not materialise.
As part of the project, the bronze statue of Dr. BR Ambedkar was installed on an 81-feet pedestal at Swaraj Maidan. The total height of the project is 206 feet. The statue is made of 352 metric tons of steel and 112 metric tons of bronze. A 2000 people-capacity Convention Center with spacious car and bus parking facility would also form part of the project, which has ground plus two floors. The government plans to display the life and times of Dr. BR Ambedkar at Memorial Park in addition to setting up a Library, Museum and Gallery.
The government studied various countrywide models, which include Ambedkar Deeksha Bhoomi (Nagpur), Chaitya Bhoomi (Mumbai), Ambedkar Memorial (Lakhanpur) and Prerana Sthal (Noida).
The government relocated the Irrigation and other government offices, Swaraj Maidan Rythu Bazaar from the Maidan before the commencement of the work. Mr. Jagan laid a foundation stone for the project on July 8, 2020, and asked the officials to keep in mind the deadline of April 14, 2021, and expedite the work. The AP government issued a GO on July 7, 2020, for the construction of the memorial park and Ambedkar statue. The Chief Minister, in September 2020, asked the officials to start the works from November 1 and complete within 13 months.
It may be recalled that the previous government headed by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu planned to construct a 125-feet Ambedkar statue in the Capital city of Amaravati. Mr. Naidu even laid a foundation stone for the same in April 2016. The TDP government planned to construct B.R. Ambedkar memorial, including the statue of the architect of the Constitution, on a 15-acre site in the State’s new capital Amaravati. The proposed memorial would comprise a park, convention centre, a Buddhist meditation hall and a library. With a change in the guard, the project was shifted to Vijayawada city.
