By IANS,
Mumbai: A unique international effort initiated by the Maharashtra government will soon bring electricity supply to the 1,500 villagers living on the Elephanta Island, famous for the World Heritage Elephanta Caves complex.
The people staying in Rajbander village on the island, 11 km from here in the Arabian Sea, will soon have regular electricity for the first time – thanks to a unique venture of the state government, and a Pune organisation, with Japanese and Australian participation – in the golden jubilee year of the state, an official said here Thursday.
The villagers will be provided solar powered lamps and electric ports for charging mobile phones, the official said.
The Rs.10 million project has been jointly initiated by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and the Science & Technology Park, Pune.
While MMRDA will foot 10 percent of the cost, 40 percent will be borne by the STP, which has engaged a leading Japanese designer, and the remaining 50 percent will come from the Australian government.
STP has entered into a technical collaboration with an Australian company, Solar Gem company, and engaged the renowned Japanese designer, Omura.
While Solar Gem will provide four solar power lamps to each household in Rajbunder, Omura will help design unique electricity poles which would suit the architecture of the caves on the world heritage site and also protect them from the menace of the monkeys living in the forests of the two square kms island.
At present, the villagers are dependent on very limited electricity supply through diesel generators, said MMRDA Metropolitan Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad.
“The project will be completed very soon and would help transform the lives of the people on the island,” said Gaikwad.
The island – and the world famous Elephants Caves, a UNESCO World Heritage site – are frequented by nearly a million tourists, around 40 percent of them foreigners.
Though the island is in close proximity to the country’s business capital, the people have lived in near total darkness all these years.
It has not been connected to the Mumbai power grid as it is separated by a vast stretch of the sea.
In 2003, the Indian National Trust for Art & Cultural Heritage (INTACH) prepared an exhaustive plan for the sustainable development of the entire island housing the world class caves complex, but it never took off.
The Elephanta Caves are a must-see on the itineraries of both domestic and foreign tourists to the city. People throng there in small launches which take roughly an hour both ways.
Earlier known as the Gharapur Island, or the abode of Lord Shiva, the Elephanta Caves were excavated in the 6th century, on a tall hill on the isle, accessible by a 100-step concrete stairway.
The Gharapuri Island was under the control of the Portuguese nearly a thousand years later and they renamed it as Elephanta Island, after a majestic carved stone elephant near the caves complex.
The complex has half a dozen caves, a couple of them really huge with nine marvellous sculptured panels set on the walls.
The sculptures display the changing moods of Lord Shiva intensified by a magical interplay of light and shades to give a mesmerising effect to the viewers.
Still higher up on the hills, there are two cannons erected by the Portuguese facing towards the Mumbai island on the west. The cannons, accessible by a steep climb, are still in a very good condition.
A few years ago, the state government had sought to popularize the island by organising the annual Elephanta Festival, a cultural extravaganza set amidst the backdrop of the caves complex in the early part of the year (January-end or early February).
However, this was discontinued after the Nov 26, 2008, Mumbai terror attack, but there are active plans to revive it from next year.
Despite being a world class tourism site, the island has no overnight halting facilities for outsiders – all visitors or tourists must come and leave for the mainland the same day.