Vadodara, 28 November 2014

An iconic sculpture of pair of banyan trees in Vadodara city which is presently situated at Vad circle in Fatehganj area will be shifted to Dandiya bajar due to construction of fly-over at Fatehganj.

According to Dhanraj Nathwani, group senior vice president of Reliance Industries Limited, shifting work of this sculpture will be completed before ‘Vadfest 2015’ which is scheduled to be held in third week of January.

He said, services of architecture and technical experts based in Mumbai are sought for proposed shifting task.

The sculpture will be relocated at Maharani Shanta Devi hospital cross roads just after Akota-Dandiya bajar bridge on way to Dandiya bajar. Some portions of Maharani Shantadevi hospital and Government technical school are acquired by Vadodara Municipal Corporation for smooth relocation and proper flow of traffic.

Years back, the sculpture featuring a pair of banyan trees was made by Nagjibhai Patel who is happy with VMC’s choice of relocation site.

It should be noted that due to pending relocation of this sculpture, the construction work of fly-over bridge here has been stalled here. But with fresh intervention of Reliance, now the relocation task is catching speed finally.

The Banyan Tree (Vad sculpture) was commissioned in 1991 by the IPCL(now owned by Reliance), a symbolic landmark of the ‘Vad’ tree from which Baroda, actually Vadodara, takes its name. It was designed as a sculptural torana,referencing from the historical Gujarat torana.