Mumbai : While Delhi boasts of beautiful monuments and heritage buildings, Maharashtra too can pride itself for having its own such a magnificent building in the heart of the capital. Located at India Gate, it’s a modern marvel of architecture and simply resembles a palace. The guest house named ‘New Maharashtra Sadan’ is built on the lines of palaces of Maratha Kings.
The guest house will be inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday evening. The building, built on a sprawling space of 6 acres, has 138 rooms. It was designed keeping in mind the Wada culture of Maharashtra, especially the historic Shaniwarwada and Vishrambaugh Wada. The building has a huge statue of the great emperor Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj seated on his throne at the entrance. There are also the statues of two great personalities from the State who guide the nation- Mahatma Jotirao Phule’s on the right and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s on the left side. As per the norms of Lutyens Zone, only two floor building can be built. In the middle of the sprawling space, a huge open space was and the building was constructed around it. There are two separate suites for the Governor and the Chief Minister, each having 13 rooms. A special care has been taken about security of VIPs and their leisure. There are separate entrance gates for the CM’s and the Governor’s suites.
The building was constructed by developer K S Chamankar in lieu of benefits to him under the Slum Rehabilitation Authority Scheme. Therefore, the State government did not spend a single rupee on the construction. Architect P G Patki designed this guest house. The internal construction of the building is divided into six parts and they are interconnected. The construction commenced on December 12, 2006 and ended on July 12, 2012. The total constructed area is 1,73,290 square feet.
May be for the first time, there are two rooms reserved for handicapped visitors. Every suite has a computer, wi-fi internet connectivity, e-lock and the whole area will be under CCTV surveillance. The building has modern kitchen, staff canteen, laundry, high-tech AC.
Common dining room and meeting room are connected with main lobby. A special parking place is reserved and arrangement has been done for parking 207 vehicles.
To get the look of a palace, Dhaulpur stones were used like in the Parliament House or other historic buildings in New Delhi. To make the building environment-friendly, sewage treatment, rainwater harvesting and water softening plants have been installed. To avoid installation of water storage tanks on top of the building, hydro-pneumatic system has been installed.
