Gujarat government begins ₹1,200-crore redevelopment of Sabarmati Ashram

The Gujarat government has embarked upon an ambitious project to redevelop Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram and expand it from its present five acres to approximately 55 acres. The project, being monitored by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, includes plans to spend ₹1,200 crore to turn the Sabarmati Ashram into a world-class memorial with facilities and amenities to allow all Ashram visitors to have a “truly educational and immersive experience with full measure of the meaning and significance of Mahatma Gandhi’s life, work, philosophy, and message to the world.” With Gandhian values The State government has emphatically held that the in redevelopment project, also known as the Gandhi Ashram Memorial and Precinct Development Project, will be done in a manner that is respectful of the original ashram’s ethos as it will retain the values that Gandhiji preached — austerity, simplicity, and authenticity. Now, in the 75th year of Indian Independence, the government wants to restore and augment the Ashram and its entire periphery so that India has a fitting memorial for Mahatma Gandhi,” said K. Kailashnathan, Prime Minister Modi’s most trusted bureaucrat in Gujarat, who is personally handling the Ashram redevelopment project. “Since most of the original buildings lie outside today’s ashram, visitors get an incomplete sense of how the original Ashram functioned and how it embodied Gandhiji’s philosophy.