Beatles Ashram redo | Gujarat architect Bimal Patel bags another plum project

The iconic Beatles Ashram in Rishikesh, Uttrakhand, where the British music band, The Beatles, practised yoga, wrote and composed songs, is set to renovated by prominent architect Bimal Patel’s Ahmedabad-based firm HCP Design, Planning and Management Pvt Ltd.

Notably, Bimal Patel, the man behind Central Vista, has been the source of much controversy in recent years. His contemporaries and seniors have accused him of showing little interest in tradition, with his projects mostly leaning toward urban concretisation.

Bimal Patel has done several projects for the Modi government, both in Gujarat and nationally.

Key contract

The Uttarakhand government last week awarded HCP Design the contract to renovate the ashram that was originally established by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1961 on 7.5 hectares of forest land in Rishikesh.

The Chaurasi Kutiya (84 huts) Ashram gained popularity when four members of The Beatles band – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – stayed there for three months in 1968. It came to be called the Beatles Ashram.

“Though this is an Uttarakhand government project, we know that the Union government originally came up with the idea just after the G20 meeting in Rishikesh in May 2023," Anand Patel, the project head of HCP Design, told The Federal.

Cost of renovation

"We are happy to have bagged the project and will commence work by the end of 2024," said Anand Patel. "The estimated cost of the renovation will be Rs 90 crore and it may take a year-and-a-half to complete, during which the ashram will be closed for the public,” he added.

Also read: The Beatles: Five unforgettable albums by the Fabulous Four

“Since the place is over 50 years old, we will be repairing it without changing its character so that visitors get an idea about its original charm. We shall be renovating 12 out of the total 25 structures on the ashram premises.

"We will leave the remaining 13 as it is so that people get an idea about the old look of the ashram. We have also planned to create a space that will hold exhibitions on the Beatles, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, yoga and music,” he further said.

Big-ticket projects

Notably, a project this big is hardly unusual for the employees of the Bimal Patel-owned firm. It has undertaken multiple massive projects including the Central Vista, the new Parliament complex and the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor and the ongoing redevelopment of the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad.

The 63-year-old Bimal Patel has become the go-to architect for Narendra Modi since he became the Chief Minister of Gujarat, in 2001.

“He started his career in the mid-1980s with his father Hasmukh Patel, who built the Gujarat High Court in 1992," Mansi Bhargava, a Gujarat-based architect and former student of the late BV Doshi, another famous architect, told The Federal.

"Bimal was the blue-eyed boy of the world of architecture. He is the son of Hasmukh Patel and student of the legendary BV Doshi. But as he rose in his career, most architects began to disagree with his elitist urban style of architecture that did not consider the human cost associated with a project,” she added.

Bouquets and brickbats

“His first solo success came with designing the new IIM-Ahmedabad campus in 2001, which is an extension of the old premises designed by American architect Louis Kahn in 1974," Bhargava recalled.

"In 2005, he got bouquets and brickbats for the Sabarmati Riverfront Project in Ahmedabad. During those days, he used to be close to Surendra Patel, who was then the chairman of the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority and a close aide of Narendra Modi, then the CM of Gujarat,” she said.

“Surendra Patel is said to have played key a role in in handing over the Sabarmati Riverfront and Kankaria Lake Waterfront projects to Bimal. But I wish he had shared the plans with BV Doshi before the commencement of the project. Doshi eventually turned to be one of the strongest critics of the project. The fact is despite Ahmedabad’s long history of traditional architecture, Bimal shows little interest in tradition. His projects are mostly urban concretisation,” she added.

Also read: PM Modi opens Phase I of Kashi Vishwanath Corridor in Varanasi

Differences with mentor

However, despite strong protests and criticism against the riverfront project, Bimel Patel went on to design Swarnim Sankul, the state’s secretariat building in Gandhinagar. In 2015, he bagged the contract to renovate CEPT University, his alma mater, in Ahmedabad.

However, BV Doshi, who was Bimal Patel’s teacher and CEPT’s founder director, had a disagreement during the execution of the project. Doshi, who had designed the campus in 1962, confronted Bimal for altering the original concept of the building without consulting him.

Ironically, Doshi had to resign from the board of members of CEPT in 2015 and Bimal went ahead with the project as planned.

“It was not just Doshi, other board members were also not in agreement with Bimal’s plans," AR Srivathsana, who had studied at CEPT with Bimal Patel, told The Federal. "Yet that did not stop his project. Instead Doshi, the legendary figure in the world of architecture, had to resign from the institution he built with his own hands. This should speak for itself."

More Gujarat projects

By 2017, Bimal Patel became synonymous with government projects in Gujarat. He went on to design prominent institutes like the Achyut Kanvinde’s Ahmedabad Textiles Industry’s Research Association (ATIRA), Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Hasmukh C Patel’s Newman Hall, Louis Kahn’s Indian Institute of Management, Charles Correa’s Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya at the Sabarmati Ashram, Balkrishna Doshi’s LIC Housing Complex, Tagore Memorial Hall and National Institute of Design (NID).

In August 2021, his firm got yet another prestigious project – the redevelopment of the Sabarmati Ashram or Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad. The Gujarat government’s Rs 1,200 crore project immediately drew flak from Gandhians, as they called the move a ‘Disneyfication' of the ashram.

Also read: Central Vista project: Former bureaucrats raise concerns in letter to PM

Tushar Gandhi, great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, filed a PIL (public interest litigation) in the Gujarat High Court but it was rejected.

The petition said the manner and method in which the redevelopment was planned was not only diametrically opposed to the personal wishes and bequeathal of Mahatma Gandhi but would also alter the management structure of the ashram.

Anti-Gandhian?

“A relocation order was passed by the Collector for 200 families, mostly Dalits, living in the Gandhi Ashram premises, by offering them Rs 60 lakh in order to implement a Rs 1,200-crore project called the Gandhi Ashram Memorial and Precinct Development Project," Dhimant Badhiya, a Gandhian who used to reside inside the campus, told The Federal.

"This has not been acceptable to me or many Gandhinas who live on the premises. This was as anti-Gandhian as one can go, to say the least,” Badhiya said.

Despite the protests, Modi performed the ashram bhoomi vandana (laying of the foundation stone) and unveiled the masterplan of the project in March 2024.

“The families now live all across Ahmedabad. Out of the 60 families, 20 accepted the money and moved out of own accord. The remaining families had to move out owing to constant police harassment,” added Badhiya.