Telangana Martyrs Memorial at Lumbini Park

Hyderabad: The State government is planning to construct a gigantic Telangana Martyrs Memorial spread over 2.5 acres in Lumbini Park. Renowned artist M V Ramana Reddy designed the memorial and Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has approved the design.

The memorial is being planned as a means to remember the sacrifices made by the martyrs during the Telangana movement. Though, there is a memorial at Gun Park in front of State Assembly, the government plans to construct the new memorial with more facilities.

Equipped with museum, art gallery, audio-video exhibition centre, convention centre, the memorial will be atop a six-floor building.

Each floor will have different facility with the terrace offering space for visitors to pay their tributes to the martyrs.

While, the structure will be around 30 metres, the star shaped memorial is proposed to rise for another 30 metres in height. The design is inspired by the Kakatiya architecture, which generally has octagon or hexagon shapes, said Reddy.

It was not easy for Reddy to come up with a design for the memorial. “Designing Telangana State Martyrs Memorial is an honour. I had travelled extensively during Telangana movement and came across emotional outbursts and scarifies of Martyrs,” said Reddy.

In coordination with Telangana folk singer Deshapathi Srinivas, three designs were presented before the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and the star-shaped memorial design got the nod, he said.

The memorial is also designed to have commercial outlets offering Telangana handicrafts and handlooms, besides food outlets. The entire project is estimated to cost Rs 80 crore and the works are to be completed by next year, said Reddy.