Offtrack: Ahmedabad: Chip by Chip

Computer-Aided Technology has helped Trivedi reduce the time for constructing temples from several years to just around a year.

Computer-Aided Technology has helped Trivedi reduce the time for constructing temples from several years to just around a year.

Kiran Trivedi is a well-known exporter in Ahmedabad. But he doesn't export mundane items like garments and handicrafts. The 44-year-old marble miner is into more august stuff: temples. Complete with intricate stone carvings, exquisite sculptures, latticed windows and huge columns. But not for Trivedi the drudgery of endlessly chipping away at a piece of marble with chisel and hammer. This enterprising carver has developed the technique of making prefabricated temples by improving upon the Italian computerised stone-cutting technology. Though Trivedi's USP is building traditional marble temples with intricate carvings, his modus operandi is far from it -- it's totally hi-tech

So it wasn't surprising that residents of Bromwich, a suburb in Birmingham in the UK, chose him to build a temple for them. Ordinarily, the 91 ft by 73 ft temple to be built at a cost of about Rs 6 crore would have taken four years to be put up. Trivedi took on the job early last year and promised to have the temple ready in less than one year. It wasn't an empty promise. The technology he uses drastically reduces the time frame for cutting and carving stone and marble for a temple -- at no extra cost. And he delivered.

The Bromwich temple was designed by Trivedi's architect Nimesh Shah on a computer before the pillars, columns, idols and other carved pieces were given shape at the factory in Ahmedabad. Then each piece was numbered and shipped to Bromwich, where it is now being assembled. Says Chandubhai Patel, an economics teacher in Bromwich and a major fund raiser for the temple: "What would have taken several years is now taking just around a year. This is a revolution in the process of temple construction."

Spurred by the success of his Bromwich venture, Trivedi is now putting together a Rs 10 crore Jain temple to be shipped to San Francisco. He also has orders for making temples in India. A member of a family of traditional sculptors of Sompura in Gujarat -- his father Jitendrabhai helped restore the famous Dilwara Jain temples at Mount Abu in Rajasthan in the early 1950s -- Trivedi branched out as a marble miner and exporter in 1982. "I started this work as an experiment two years ago," he says. "Today I still can't believe that it has succeeded so well."

Of course, a lot of foresight and hard work has gone into it and Trivedi has developed an eye for new technologies in his line of work. In fact, he can now boast of the most modern stone-cutting technology in the country. During a visit to Italy three years ago he bought a computerised machine which helped in carving European-type sculptures. With his penchant for innovation, Trivedi adapted the Rs 1.5 crore gadget to create Indian temple sculptures. The functioning of the machine appears simple enough. Architect Shah feeds the design of the required piece into the computer attached to the machine. When a marble slab is placed on it, the computer-aided cutter begins carving the stone. No human hands, no chisels required.

The advent of the hi-tech doesn't mean, however, that the exporter has dispensed with skilled craftsmen. Nor has he retrenched any worker from his factory. For, given the intricacy of Indian carving, the machines do only 85 to 90 per cent of the job. The finishing touches are still given by accomplished artisans. Trivedi now employs about 200 sculptors as against less than 100 two years ago before he brought the machines. Says Jaganbhai Sompura, a traditional sculptor: "It has reduced our burden without affecting our employment. Our skills are now focused on actual carving, instead of measuring dimensions and proportions."

Trivedi, who went about on a two-wheeler 17 years ago, drives a swank Rs 25 lakh Mitsubishi Challenger and has become as rich and famous as the people who seek him out. Last year UK-based steel magnate L.N. Mittal approached him to make latticed windows, marble idols and fountains to be used during the wedding of his son in London. "His strong point is his ability to look beyond anything that others can visualise," says Prakash Jain, a Delhi marble miner. That's enterprise for you. No wonder the gods smile at him -- from the temples that he builds for them.