Bronze sculpture to depict meeting of two saints

PUNE: A historic meeting of two saints — Sant Namdev and Sant Dnyaneshwar — will be depicted in a bronze sculpture to be installed on Pune Alandi Road. The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation will put up this largest “group” sculpture in the state at Wadmukhwadi in Charholi, officials said.
Thousands of warkaris (pilgrims) who take part in the annual pilgrimage from the temple town of Alandi to Pandharpur will be able to see the sculpture.
Shirish Poredi from the PCMC engineering department said, “The civic body has appointed an architect to design the sculpture. We had invited bids for its construction. The lowest bid was for Rs 7.15 crore, which was reduced to around Rs 6.75 crore through negotiations. We will now table a proposal before the civic standing committee for its approval, before issuing a work order.”
He added that the construction work of the pedestal was started in March 2014 and is expected to be completed in six months. The plan for the sculpture, however, was finalised only recently.
PCMC executive engineer Vasant Salvi said, “We first verified whether a meeting between Sant Namdev and Sant Dnyaneshwar had taken place. We consulted with experts from the Savitribai Phule Pune University, Deccan College and the state art directorate about the sculpture. Earlier, we had planned to install 20 statues and one flag, but the number was later increased to 25. We have also changed the height of the statues based on recommendations from the state art directorate to make the sculpture more beautiful.”
Gireesh Chiddarwar, who is the architect for the project, said that the structure would be the largest “group” sculpture in the state. “We will first prepare a clay model of the statues and get it approved from the state art directorate. We will then prepare a fibre model, removing the shortcomings in the first model. After that is approved, we will prepare the bronze statues.”
The sculpture of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj meeting Sant Tukaram, installed by the civic body 18 years ago at Bhakti Shakti garden along Pune-Mumbai highway in Nigdi, has become a landmark. The PCMC also plans to make the new sculpture a landmark on Pune-Alandi Road in Pimpri Chinchwad.