JANUARY 20: The floats in the Republic Day parade to be held at Shivaji Park will depict Maharashtra's progress and contribution in various areas like power, transport, atomic research, industrial development and education.The first of the ten floats, designed by the Cultural Affairs department, will depict 100 years of cinema. A statue of movie legend Dadasaheb Phalke, a film set, and different equipment used for producing films will be displayed. A group of artists will enact scenes from movies and dramas.The Bhaba Atomic Research Centre's float will have three parts: the first will depict nuclear power reactors, the second the BARC's contribution to the field of agriculture, and the third its fight against cancer in association with the Tata Memorial Hospital. Next in line will be the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), showcasing its progress since its inception in 1948. It will have models of its oldest and its most modern super deluxe buses. This will be followed by the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) float, which will depict man's control over energy. The float's highlights will be `power to everyone,' `electrification of villages and tribal areas,' and `power to industries.'The Mumbai Port Trust's float will have models of modern container-handling equipment. It will also have a model of a light house, apart from that of the modern radar-controlled vessel traffic monitoring system and the marine oil terminal at Jawahar Dweep.The ideas of the floats have been finalised by Cultural Affairs Minister Pramod Navalkar, Minister of State for Education Anil Deshmukh, Cultural Affairs secretary Chitkala Zutshi, Director of Cultural Affairs department N N Patel, director of J J School of Arts Murlidhar Nangre and theme artist Raghuveer Talashilkar.
