Mumbai: Actors and architects to approve multimedia fountain in heritage museum

The multimedia fountain will come up on this lake in the compound, showing holographic visuals about the life of mill workers and the history of the textile industry in Mumbai. Pic/Ashish Raje

The city's first heritage textile museum, set to come up at the United Mill compound in Kalachowkie, will have a swanky addition - a multimedia fountain showing holographic visuals about the life of mill workers and the history of the textile industry in Mumbai. The design and other aspects of this fountain will be approved by an expert committee - comprising noted personalities from the film and architecture fraternities - which is being set up by the BMC.

The global tender for the multimedia fountain will cost the civic body a cool Rs 25 crore. The structure will be set up on a lake within the mill compound, which is 55 metres long, 45 metres wide and 8 metres deep. The fountain is part of phase I of the plan and the restoration and construction of the textile museum will be part of the second. Municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta said, "We want to involve international companies since we want the best possible experience for Mumbaikars. Visitors will be able to witness the history of girni kamgars [mill workers] and of the textile industry.

Awaiting confirmation
While some of the members have been finalised, BMC is awaiting confirmation from others. The committee, which will be headed by deputy municipal commissioner Nidhi Choudhari, will also include Sabyasachi Mukherjee, the director general of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), Neera Adarkar, architect, and Rajiv Mishra, principal of JJ School of Art and Architecture and a member of the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee.

The panel will also include technical experts like Firoz Jena, CEO of Clancy Global and Vikas Kurdukar, former vice president of Indiabulls Group. Mishra said that the civic body has also reached out to noted poet and lyricist Gulzar but are awaiting a confirmation from him. "We have approached some actors, directors, and historians like Shekhar Krishnan. The panel will have five to seven experts to decide the design of the fountain and the exhibits that will be set up in the textile museum," said Mishra. Civic officials said formal letters of appointment will be sent to all the members once they've received all the confirmations.

In less than a year
The tendering process was closed on Monday. Officials from the heritage department said they have received proposals from five bidders. Once the contractor is assigned, the fountain is expected to be completed in eight to 10 months. An official from the heritage department said, "So far, all the bidders are from India. But, we have to examine their proposal and see if they're working with foreign companies, since this will be the first-of-its-kind fountain in India. One such fountain currently exists in Ukraine." He added that the bidders were asked to design their own models as part of their proposal, which will be examined by the committee of experts.

Civic officials said that this fountain will have 360-degree nozzles and the contractor will have to appoint a music director and script director to develop new video content. "The contractor will have to update the film content and soundtracks because we don't want the public to get bored," said Mishra.

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