Rajiv monument to inspire Dandi march memorial

There is a meeting of the Dandi Memorial Committee in Chennai on June 22. We hope to finalise the concept of the memorial,which is going to be inspiring,but not ostentatious. We hope the proposed memorial comes up very soon alongside the Dandi Destination Tourism Project of the Gujarat government, Gopalkrishna Gandhi,chairman of the Dandi Memorial Committee,told The Indian Express on the phone from Chennai.

We are looking at the Rajiv Gandhi Memorial at Sriperumbudur,which has been set up with great simplicity and brilliant architectural standards. The members of the committee will visit the site to see if we can get some ideas about the architectural standards and procedure to set up the proposed national memorial at Dandi, Gopalkrishna said.

The plan to create the national memorial at Dandi is already running late as the committee has not decided on the design for the proposed memorial. Consequently,neither an architectural firm nor any budget has been finalised for the proposed memorial.

This,despite the work on the Gujarat governments Dandi Destination Tourism Project,which seeks to develop over 20 locations in six districts along the original Dandi march route,running on schedule,according to the members of the committee.

Sources say a Committee of Secretaries (CoS) under the chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar has now taken the matter in its hands,with the Culture Secretary reportedly having visited the proposed site for the first time last month.

Gopalkrishna,too,hopes the work on the memorial wont take much time now. We dont want to take much time in finalising the memorial now, he said. We want to make the memorial a living memorial by using solar power to illuminate it and developing the stretch of beach in such a way to make it a model for coastal management. We are striving for not only a structure of memorial but a living memorial.