New England Shirdi Sai Parviaar (NESSP), which is building the largest Sai temple in the United States and North America, has hired NM Construction Corp. as a general contractor to build the first phase of a two-story, 40,000 s/f temple.
NM Construction, which has an extensive experience in building religious centers including several Hindu temples, was selected after an exhaustive process of evaluating qualified bids for the project.
"The most important factor NESSP looked in selecting a bid was the experience of the general contractor in building large commercial projects and someone who can do justice to a temple building," said Mahender Singh, president of NESSP.
Singh said that NM Construction was selected because its owner and president, Nalin Mistry, has more than three decades of experience in designing and constructing large commercial buildings.
"Most importantly, Nalin M. Mistry has experience in building two Hindu temples in New England," said Singh. "The first temple Nalin was involved is New England Hindu Temple of Ashland, MA also called as Laksmi Temple, and second Temple Nalin built was Chinmaya Mission Temple in Andover, MA."
Mistry will be teaming up with architect B.D Nayak of BD Nayak Architects to undertake construction of a 40,000 s/f Shirdi Sai Baba Temple, which will be constructed in two phases, and once completed would be the largest Shirdi Sai Baba Temple in North America.
NESSP has secured all the necessary building permits. The first phase will be completed by Guru Purnima in July 2016.
NESSP purchased 28 acres of land in December. The first phase of construction of the temple complex will include a temple building, a kitchen, a big dining hall and few community rooms. The second phase will include three residential units for priests and a 500-seat auditorium. The sprawling complex is designed by BD Nayak Architects.
The temple will be located at 719 Great Rd. in Groton and will be open to everyone and people can hold weddings, ayengetrams and other community and cultural events. The temple complex will provide a great venue for poojas, learning and weddings where havans in open can be held and barat (wedding party) can come with horses and full festivities like in India.
NESSP currently operates out of a 7,200 s/f rented facility in Chelmsford, and will relocate to the new facility when it is completed in 2016. The temple acquired the land for $1.14 million and will spend an additional $10 million to build the new complex.