Facets of Divine Construction - Chaitanya Jyothi

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Facets of Divine Construction - Chaitanya Jyothi

by Col. S.K. Bose (Rtd.) Trust Engineer

This building was constructed to commemorate the 75th Birthday of Bhagawan Sri

Sathya Sai Baba and houses an exhibition on His Life and Mission. The location

was selected keeping in view the ambience and grandeur of the structure. A

level site of 65 m frontage and 60 m depth and 4 m above road level had to be

created out of a sloping hillside. This entailed 3 to 4 m of filling to an

extant of one third portion and about 5,000 m3 of rock removal on the remaining

portion. The building is 23 m high, with a covered area of about 6,000 m2. The

apex of the roof is 27 m high from the road level.

The architect, Goh Say Tong of Malaysia, designed a unique structure with a

fusion of many cultures and architectural styles. A roof similar to a Chinese

Emperor's Palace, flanked by two Moorish domes made of titanium, crowning

semicircular ends adorned with gothic arches, are the main features. The two

lift shafts have Japanese style roofs and there is a fish pool in front,

designed by a specialist from Singapore. The stone balustrades and the front

sthupa came from China. Incidentally, this is the biggest Chinese roof outside

mainland China.

The excavation which started on 16th November 1999 was completed in April 2000,

because this involved hard rock profiles. In order to accelerate the excavation

progress, a rock breaker was employed. It was withdrawn a month later being

unable to break the hard granite strata underlying the top layer. Permission

was then given for controlled blasting, which commenced on 3rd February 2000

and went up to 20th April 2000.

Because of the stringent time schedules, the structural construction did not

proceed in the normal way but commenced wherever site clearance was made

available. Thus on the right hand side the columns and slabs were raised up to

the roof level, leaving dowels. All levels were tackled simultaneously and the

whole building was constructed proceeding sideways from right to left. This

radical departure from normal construction sequence was adopted, in order to

meet the stringent time frames and to make the building functional.

Yet another innovation includes anchoring the reinforcement bars of columns

directly into the hard granite rock wherever such rock was encountered. M 30

grade concrete was adopted and used for all structural members. For

intermediate slabs and heavily reinforced beams, w/c ratio of 0.38 was adopted

using Fosroc Conplast SP 337 superplasticiser. For all slabs open to sky and

the Chinese roof slab, w/c ratio of 0.36 with maximum superplasticiser dosing

was adopted. Joints in slabs were kept to a bare minimum and wherever joints

had to be provided, epoxy based bonding chemical was used to ensure the best

possible bonding. No leakage or seepage has ever been noticed. In order to

ensure proper curing, pounding for 28 days and column cured slabs and

beams were cured using Fosroc WB water based membrane curing compound. For

maintaining proper curvature of the Chinese Roof and Gazebos, templates were

used and finished surfaces matched exactly with the drawings. Maximum care was

taken to maintain straight lines on the exterior finishes. To maintain

uniformity, all mortar for plaster was mixed in concrete mixers.

Filling in plinth was done using alternate layers of rock and murrum and

compacted by a plate vibrator. The fill portion of the road was initially

compacted by a vibratory roller and later by a conventional road roller.

Flooring required a wide variety of materials to be used, such as ceramic tiles,

polished granite tiles of grey/red colour and of different tiles - like

Jaisalmer marble tiles and white glazed tiles. Because of the coarse sand

available in the area, the plastered surface had to be treated with plaster of

paris and applied with acrylic emulsion paint. The external surface was treated

with the Heritage (granite) surfacing system and a pattern was created to

stimulate granite masonry. Extensive stapathi work was done on flat surfaces to

improve aesthetics. The structure is lit, for most part, by halide lamps of

Thorn make. Fiber optic lights under the Chinese roof enhance the beauty of the

decorative reflected ceiling.

The edifice is something that all those connected with the construction can be

proud of. The unique building, now named Chaitanya Jyoti, was inaugurated on

18th November 2000 by Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

COLLECTION : PREETHAM SAI P.V.

MANGALORE,INDIA.