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A Gujarat based company has come up with readymade minarets that could be unpacked and assembled
Readymade minarets! Just buy the components and assemble them. It might sound incredible! But be ready for rubbing your eyes in disbelief.
A Gujarat based sanitary ware company, namely Aman Sanitary Ware has come up with the idea and has so far sold several sets of components to managements of upcoming mosques across the country to just buy the components off its shelves and assemble them into full sized minarets. (see pictures).
Aman Sanitary Wares began to develop small sized minarets around the turn of the century. These components made in concrete were ready for assembling. Now the company has got into full fledged production of components in varying designs which could be joined together to erect minarets ranging between 7 feet and 30 feet.
According to the Company’s Karnataka representative H. Ataullah Baig, several mosques in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi have erected minarets by just assembling the components of the Aman Sanitary Wares. Even a mosque in the Aligarh Muslim University opted for readymade minaret. Hafiz Mohammad Maaz Yusuf, one of the partners of the company on being reached on telephone, informed that the pre-cast minarets were conceived by the company after it felt the need in view of mosque structures being left without minarets due to excessive cost. Since minarets do not make functional parts of the mosques, their construction was postponed due to paucity of funds. But the pre-cast minarets produced by Aman bring down the cost by as much as 50 per cent.
Mr. Ataullah Baig told Islamic Voice that the components come in the shell form and have to be joined together on a three feet high solid concrete pedestal on the corner pillars on the roof. The hollow shells have to be filled with cement while steel rods are placed inside. These also have provision for wiring for lighting and deploying microphones. Hafiz Maaz claimed that the product was tested adequately at his workshop in Palanpur and the components are cured sufficiently for 15 days in cisterns. He said Masjid Ibrahim in Palanpur has erected the readymade minarets. He said, the cost works out to be Rs. 1600 for each feet of minaret which is even less than half of the conventional construction cost. He said his company has so far erected about 600 such minarets in various places and the first such mosques with readymade minarets were coming up in Bijapur and Bangalore in Karnataka. He claimed that the minarets can withstand storms, lightning and rains. The company produces even the parapets with jalis that adorn the various levels of the minarets. Against a construction period of two months for conventional minarets, a 30-feet pre-cast minaret could be erected within merely four days. More details can be had from: H. Ataullah Baig 94484-02925.
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