A file picture of Shakti Sthal in Delhi and (below) Ramesh Chandra Mohanty, who scouted for the stone in Rourkela. Picture by Uttam Kumar Pal

Rourkela, Oct. 30: The huge ferrous rock weighing over 25 tonnes, installed at the memorial site of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in New Delhi, was sourced from the mines of Sundergarh.

When the then central government had decided to set up a memorial for Mrs Gandhi, it wanted to project her as a lady with an iron will. Hence, it was decided to place a monolithic iron ore rock at the site that was named as Shakti Sthal, which means “Place of Power and Strength”. It is situated southeast of Red Fort between banks of the Yamuna river and Mahatma Gandhi Marg.

The rock was located at Barsuan, one of the mines operated by Steel Authority of India Limited, around 100km from Rourkela. The then director-general of the Geological Survey of India, Sailen Mukherjee, led the search operation for the rock. Later, it was placed at Shakti Sthal following the nod of Pupul Jaykar, a close confidant of Mrs Gandhi.

Mukherjee and Ramesh Chandra Mohanty, retired general manager (raw materials division) of the Rourkela Steel Plant, had scouted for the stone in the vicinity of Rourkela.

At Barsuan, Mukherjee and Mohanty had rummaged through a pile of ferrous stones, finally zeroing in on one of jasper variety because of its red colour.

“Both of us were extremely happy,” said octogenarian Mohanty.

There were also other reasons for selecting this stone. “It resembled the shape of a palm, which was the Congress symbol. It had some visible holes caused by jackhammer drilling. These would remind one of the bullet marks on Mrs Gandhi’s body,” he said.

The biggest problem was, however, bringing the stone down from the Barsuan mines to the valley from where it was to be loaded onto a train. The distance was nearly 10km and the terrain was hilly.

“It was loaded on a big Mac trailer with the help of a crane, which came all the way from Rourkela. The district administration had stopped traffic movement on the hill road for three hours to facilitate the transportation of the rock,” he said.

Later, it was loaded onto a special train, which reached Delhi almost non-stop because of special route clearance.

On October 31, 1984, Mrs Gandhi’s two Sikh bodyguards assassinated her while she was walking past the wicket gate guarded by them. She died on way to hospital, succumbing to the bullet injuries.

Mrs Gandhi had addressed her last public meeting at the Parade Ground in Bhubaneswar on October 30, 1984. The place is now known as Indira Gandhi Park. However, very few know that Shakti Sthal, the memorial of the slain Prime Minister, too, has an Odisha connection.