Ahmedabad marble men carve out global marvels

AHMEDABAD: Mukesh Ambani’s ‘Antilla’ has a few more Amdavadi touches than just being the palatial house of a Gujarati business tycoon. Its 148 columns made of pure Ambaji white marble have been designed by artisans in Changodar, some 20 km way from Ahmedabad.Most of the marble stone work in billionaire Laxmi Mittal’s extravagant house ‘Taj Mittal’ in the UK and Mayawati’s statues too were carved out in this town.It’s in this little-known factory owned by Ahmedabad-based Trivedi family where designers are currently working on stone art installations to be put up in a 90-metre tall pagoda in Vietnam and Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev’s residence in Almati.Trivedis, who own white marble mine in Ambaji and black marble mine in Abu, have recently bagged a $5-million order for the stone work at the pagoda, which will depict the journey of Lord Buddha from India to other countries.“My grandfather D K Trivedi restored the Ranakpur and Dilwara temples in 1940s. Since then, the family has created designs and done stone work for more than 50 temples and gurudwaras across the world,” says Kiran Trivedi.For Trivedi, pagoda is a dream project. “The developer, Nguyen Van Truong, one of the most influential industrialists in Vietnam, wanted the stones from India as Buddha was born here,” says Trivedi.The company has invested nearly Rs 100 crore in its units which have close to 40 full-scale CNC machines in Changodar and Abu.Manan, Trivedi’s son, is working with a Swiss architect to convert an erstwhile palace in Switzerland into a five-star hotel and a Malaysian company for creating stone designs for First International Financial Centre at Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai. Trivedis have done several high-end residences for corporate honchos in the US and UK and temples, including the Akshardham Temple in Delhi.