Mohan Holds Discussion With Shah To Give A Push To Union Carbide Tragedy Memorial Project

Mr. Yadav outlined the state government’s plan to build a memorial by redeveloping the 87-acre- site, during his meeting with Mr. Shah at Delhi on Saturday, sources in the chief minister’s office (CMO) here said.

Inspired by the Hiroshima- Nagasaki Peace Memorial, the proposed Rs 1,200 crore project will include a memorial wall, museum, and preserved factory structures, following the recent safe disposal of the hazardous waste.

A community-curated museum featuring artifacts, oral histories, and photographs from survivors and activists, serving as a primary site of remembrance of the 1984 catastrophe, is proposed at the site.

The state government has drawn up a blueprint to turn the site into Bhopal Gas Tragedy Memorial along with a Science Park, a convention Centre, a modern laboratory dedicated to national security and a national research Centre focused on development, officials said.

The Mohan Yadav government will take all stakeholders into confidence while planning the project, sources said.

The former Union Carbide factory site is fenced.

However, a sizable part of the site has now been encroached and the government is initiating steps to free the encroachment before undertaking the redevelopment of the site, sources said.

Leakage of the highly toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) in the pesticide plant of the Union Carbide factory here in the intervening night of December two-three, 1984 had led to death of over 15,000 people, unofficially, and maiming of over one lakh others.

Official death figure was however put at a little over 5,000.

It is considered the worst industrial tragedy in the world so far.