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ferro cement panels, as well as for the anchoring bolts jutting out from them on
which the SS rods supporting the discs are fastened.
As we have vividly realised in this recent period of harsh and intense examination,
any material progress in the midst of conflicts and denials is bound to be
fragmented and uncertain.
Seeking for a truer base of collaboration beyond all opinions and preferences, we
have thus felt it necessary to help create a space where all views, however
diverging, could be honestly expressed and listened to, so that we could together
open to the right answers for the Matrimandir.
This space has been called the Matrimandir Forum, where all policy issues regarding
the Matrimandir are now presented and delved into until a basic consensus is
reached.
From this Forum a concentrated exercise has been initiated to define as simply, as
objectively and as exactly as possible the practical and technical problems
encountered, so as to have at hand a complete document with drawings and
photographs, which can be used as a tool for consultancy.
This document is now available, a statement as quiet and transparent as we could
make it of the difficulties encountered, and a call for the right help, whatever route
it will take to reach us.
We have also commissioned from a Government-sponsored research centre on
corrosion in South India a thorough assessment of the condition of the RCC
structure of the Matrimandir as well as of the ferro cement panels of its sphere.
All the tests have now been run and records and samples are now being studied in
their laboratories. Along with the results, this centre will also list the measures to
be taken in future.
All of the above does not mean that we have accomplished nothing on the site in
this year’ time.
During the financial year 1996/1997, we have been able to proceed with the
following works:
. The cladding of the large Petals on their outer slopes as well as inside their
passageways;
. The structural work of the 12 meditation rooms and their marble cladding;
. The laying of all the permanent electricity and water-distribution conduits in all
the Petals;
. The marble cladding of the central staircase and of the 4 ribs at Level II;
. The completion of the prototype of the 4 main automatic sliding entrance doors to
the sphere;
. The completion of the SS frames for all of the 1,200 discs;
. The completion of the 3 underground water-storage tanks located under one of
the small Petals, each with a capacity of 750m3;
. The detailed finalisation of the cladding and grass patterns of the small Petals;
. The contouring of the inner Gardens;
. The completion of the cladding of the amphitheatre, but for the 16 stairways
which are presently in progress;
. The installation of the permanent electrical panels in the command centre which is
located in the Eastern underground area of the amphitheatre;