THE MAKING OF ANOTHER WONDER OF THE WORLD

 

 

Vrindavan October 24 (IANS)

Work on the foundation and the piling of the pillars of the world's tallest Sri Krishna temple called "Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir," has begun full steam. 

Giving this information to IANS the project director Bharat Prabhu said "the Rs 300  crore project of  the world's tallest skyscraper temple for Lord Krishna, will take five years.We are using the world's latest technology and engineering processes to ensure a minimum life of 500 years for the gigantic structure that will go a long way to promote and nourish Sri Krishna consciousness, especially among the youth."

He said "this was a unique concept and should not be compared with other buildings like the Taj Mahal. It will be RCC-based. Actually good quality stones of the size required are no longer available. Material costing as also labour input  can be inhibiting factors."

In contrast, the Taj Mahal took 17 years, more than 20,000 workers and cost the Mughal exchequer Rs four crore, 18 lakh 48 thousand, four hundred and twenty six, seven annas and six pies, in addition to around 466 kg of gold and numerous precious stones. "Thus while Taj Mahal was a result of craftsmanship and 'hunar' of Indian skilled workers, representing 5000 years of excellence of Indian civilisation, the temple in Vrindavan would be a logical representation of advancement in technology," commented Surendra Sharma president of the Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society.

Prabhu said the Bangalore Sri Krishna temple had proved a huge success.  "We have a whole lot of activities for the youth round the year. Today's youth and people in general do not have clean environment and there are very few opportunities for value teaching in modern context. The Vrindavan project has been so designed that those who visit the temple will go back into history and have a glimpse of the original pristine Braj Dham with its many forests and rivulets. On 30 acres we will have sculptures and show pieces to re-create the original ambience of Krishna's Vrindavan dham. Water would be pumped from the Yamuna for a small stream inside the complex to allow for boating to enable people to see the orignal flora and fauna. The open air theatre will each day present performances by artists, the leelas of Sri Krishna on the stage."  

The project is conceptualized and is being executed by ISKCON from Bangalore, who also bring Akshaya Patra, the world's largest NGO run midday meal programme in the country feeding over a million school going children every day.

Prabhu said "this is a culturally and socially driven project which aims to put Vrindavan and India on the world map of iconic heritage structures. The project also employs many technological innovative solutions to ensure environmental sustainability."  This grand temple with monumental proportions and iconic architecture shall harmoniously combine elements of both Indian temple architecture and modern architecture.  A look-alike of the verdant forests of Vrindavan, consisting of twelve forests (dvadasha kanana) of Braj  will be recreated around this magnificent temple.  Spreading over 26 acres, it will comprise vegetation, green pastures, elegant vistas of fruit bearing trees, flower-laden creepers, water falls that tumble from small artificial hillocks-all recreated from descriptions in the Srimad Bhagavatam and other source books of Lord Sri Krishna - to transport the visitors to Krishna's times in Vrindavan.  The India Heritage and Culture Expo are planned as a walk through with the matic lighting and exhibits that highlight the legends from these epics and classics. In addition, there will be audio-visual shows in small and medium-sized theatres. These exhibits and shows will communicate the timeless message of the classics of India in an entertaining and educative manner."

Once the temple project is executed according to plans, a series of welfare measures would be initiated for the society including plan for rehabilitation of widows and restoration of Yamuna to its pristine glory.


Bharat Prabhu said the whole temple edifice will feature several technologically innovative and sustainable solutions, new to India. Due to wind loads arising from the building height and the dead load of the building, we have to use friction piles for the foundation. The friction between the earth and  the concrete surface of the piles will prevent the piles being lifted up due to wind loads. The wind loads are being determined in Canada by M/s RWDI. The friction will also prevent the piles from sinking in due to the building weight. The risk of corrosion from contaminated ground water, of the reinforcement steel is being solved by Galvanising the bars- a practice relatively uncommon in India but more commonly used for bridges & marine area buildings in the US. To prevent the earth from collapsing inward while it is drilled and the soil excavated polymer fluid is being used - a practice normally uncommon in India due to the higher cost involved. Considering the protection of the environment, this incremental cost of nearly about Rs 50 Lakhs is budgeted to be absorbed as part of the project cost. Bio-Toilets being constructed to provide ecologically sustainable solution to the sanitation and hygiene issues.  

During soil geotechnical investigation to determine the soil strength which in turn will determine depth & size of the piles, it was found that the earth is sandy and very soft at shallow depths and incapable of taking the loads required in uplift or  the dead loads. For the geotechnical investigation, auger drilling machines were used to extract soil samples upto 75m depth. The soil hardness is expressed in terms of "N" value which indicates the standard penetration resistance. As per calculated load conditions, 5 consecutive N values greater than 50 was needed at every 5m depth. This was encountered only above 50m depth. Hence the pile depth is more than 50m. Due to the soft nature of soil, the building requires piles of as high as 1.2m (4ft) diameter, going as deep as 60m - which is equivalent to 20 floors in a regular building! In comparison the Qutub Minar is 72.5m tall. More than 500 piles are required for the temple central tower foundation. Fresh challenge was encountered when ground water contaminated with chlorine and sulphur beyond permissible limits was found at 12m below the ground. This contamination posed a great corrosion risk for the reinforcement steel to be used in the piles. One option to overcome this was to use stainless SS304 grade steel for the reinforcement. However this would push up the reinforcement cost by 5-6 times which translated to a figure as high as Rs 55 Crores! This would render the project unviable. An alternative was found in Galvanizing the reinforcement bars - a practice relatively uncommon in India but more commonly used for bridges & marine area buildings in the US.    Generally, steel is galvanised upto Class B which indicates a zinc coating thickness of about 86 microns. But since a long life of at least 500 years was desirable for the temple building, it was decided to go for Class A galvanisation. This practice is unusual but was decided in the interest of a longer corrosion free life for the reinforcement. Class A galvanisation would entail a zinc coating of about 126 microns on the reinforcement bars - significantly increasing the life of the steel bars. Nearly an estimated 200 tons of Zinc will be required to galvanize all the reinforcement required for the piling!  Normal Galvanizing requires 6-7 m long baths in which the steel is dipped at 450deg C. The temperature is critical to ensure proper bonding of the zinc to the steel. However, the reinforcement steel is supplied in lengths of more than 10m, which is double the length of the normal electroplating baths. One option to overcome this was to cut the steel into 2 lengths - but this would increase the overlaps in the steel reinforcement cage, resulting in larger steel consumption, pushing up costs. Another option is to galvanize one half of the steel & then turn it around & galvanize the balance half. However the quality of Galvanizing at the joint will not be easy to control. After much searching, a solution emerged 900km from Vrindavan. A vendor was finally located in Ahmedabad who had an electroplating bath 11m long - long enough to galvanize the reinforcement steel in one go, ensuring high quality and reliability. A reputed third party inspection agency was engaged to ensure right galvanisation thickness before being despatched from the Ahmedabad plant to Vrindavan. The total steel required for the piling for the central tower alone is more than 3000 tons! Nearly 7,00,000 cubic feet of concrete will go into the piling - which will need a staggering 3,00,000 bags of cement!! And this is only for the piling - more is to come for the structure to rise above and the foundations for the rest of the building!  To prevent the earth from collapsing inward while it is drilled and the soil excavated out for the piles, bentonite slurry is pumped into the boring. Bentonite is a type of clay which bonds the soil together & prevents it from collapsing in. The bentonite however, renders the soil excavated unusable for any purpose. Since the project is also an environment friendly one, with a 20 acre forest as one of its important features, this was not an acceptable practice. An alternative was identified in using polymer fluid - a practice normally uncommon in India due to the higher cost involved. Considering the protection of the environment, this incremental cost of nearly about Rs 50 Lakhs is budgeted to be absorbed as part of the project cost. The magnitude & complexity of the structure required a bevy of consultants to be enlisted to ensure a robust design of the temple. The structural design has been entrusted to M/s TRC Worldwide Engineering, a firm incorporated in Tennessee, USA with offices in Bangalore and Malaysia, experienced in designing tall buildings across the world. M/s Ingenious Studio from Gurgaon are the Principal Architects, while M/s WBG Consultants are doing the electrical design, M/s Behera Associates are taking care of the PHE design and M/s Gupta Consultants and Associates are entrusted with the HVAC design. M/s Quintessence Design Studio are in charge of the landscaping design, which forms an important part of the project due to the 12 forests of Braj being recreated. All the consultants are doing the design on pro bono basis, while the Façade Engineering is taken care of by M/s BES consultants, on a voluntary basis at a nominal cost.