Grand statue of Balasaheb to be unveiled in Mumbai on Jan 23

A grand statue of late Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray – a charismatic leader and orator – will be be unveiled in Mumbai's Colaba area on Saturday.

Born on January 23, 1926, Thackeray passed away on November 17, 2012.

The inauguration of the statue will commemorate the 94th birth anniversary of Thackeray – and comes eight years after his death.

The nine-foot-tall statue will be erected on an 11-feet pedestal and is situated on a traffic island at the Mahatma Gandhi Road, off the Maharashtra Police headquarters, Regal Cinema, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Institute of Science and National Gallery of Modern Art.

The place that is known as the Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Chowk, named after the nationalist leader, academician, lawyer and politician, also has a statue of late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri with the prominent symbol of ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’.

The square is a stone's throw away from the Gateway of India, Mumbai's most prominent landmark.

Incidentally, this is the first grand statue of Thackeray that is being unveiled in Mumbai since he passed away.

A grand memorial of Thackeray would also come up at the erstwhile Mayor’s bungalow at Shivaji Park, Dadar.

However, some of the prominent places that have been named after Thackeray include the Mumbai-Nagpur super communication highway, the first phase of which would be operational this year, a trauma hospital at Jogeshwari, and the Gorewada International Zoo in Nagpur.

The statue project was initiated by the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation, which is controlled by the Shiv Sena for a quarter of a century.

The statue has been sculpted by Shashikant Wadke.

At the inauguration, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena President Raj Thackeray, would be present.