Taj Mahal, Great Wall to be side by side at BRICS meet venue

New Delhi, Oct 9: The Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China will be side by side in Goa when the leaders of BRICS nations-- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, will meet for their Summit on October 15-16 there.

Famous monuments from all the five countries will be etched in sand at the venue of the Summit. Apart from the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China, sand sculptures of other historical structures -- Russia's Saint Basil Cathedral, Brazil's Christ the redeemer and South Africa's Afrikaans Language monument-- will be on display.

The sand sculptures, which will be displayed inside a box nearly 30 feet wide and 20 feet broad, will be created by well-know sand artist from India Sudarshan Pattnaik along with some of his students, according to sources organising the event.

The sculptures will require about 45-50 tonnes of sand and will take about three-four days to be prepared.

The display is part of series of cultural, educational and entertainment events including BRICS film festival, educational workshops organised to mark the Summit.

The event schedule was chalked out based on a five-pronged approach, adopted keeping in view the theme of the summit which is 'Building Responsive, Inclusive and Collective Solutions' and included integrating the existing cooperation mechanisms and innovation, i.e., new cooperation mechanisms.

Since assuming Presidency of BRICS in February, India has scheduled 115 events to mark the Summit which included two BRICS parliamentarian meets, 15 ministerial interactions and meeting of 56 working groups.

PTI