Rashtra Prerna Sthal
On Hardoi Road, in LDA’s Basant Kunj, the Gomti’s embankment opens onto a new memorial park the city has been using since the last week of 2025. People say Rashtra Prerna Sthal. It is a Lucknow Development Authority project, about 65 acres, built where a garbage dump had sat for years. It is not Ambedkar Memorial Park. That older stone memorial is in Gomti Nagar. This one is further out, toward IIM Road and the green corridor, and the three bronze figures you see from the lawns are different men.
History
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the complex on 25 December 2025, Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s 101st birth anniversary, with the Uttar Pradesh Governor and Chief Minister present. The Prime Minister’s Office described a memorial of about 230 crore rupees on 65 acres, with 65-foot bronze statues of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Deendayal Upadhyaya and Vajpayee, and a lotus-shaped museum of about 98,000 square feet. Indian Express, writing from the ground two days earlier, had the same acreage and cost, work begun in 2022 under LDA’s Basant Kunj scheme, and statues LDA called the tallest personality bronzes in the capital, each about 42 tonnes, standing in a water body. The PMO also noted that more than 30 acres of the plot had been a mountain of refuse, cleared in the three years of building.
The name is national and the politics of the three figures are public knowledge. What the visitor meets is a civic park with a museum: lawns, lighting, a large gathering ground, helipads for official use, and six gates, including separate public and VVIP lines. Times of India, before the opening, wrote of access from the green corridor and IIM Road and parking planned for around 2,000 vehicles. Treat that as the design, then follow the board on the day. LDA’s own page for the Sthal is thin. It hosts a video and little visitor text. For hours and tickets you still need the gate.
What to see
Walk the lawns first. The three statues are the thing people come to photograph. Around them LDA has laid water, fountains and paths. The museum, two storeys in the lotus plan, holds galleries and interpretation walls on the three lives. Indian Express counted five galleries and twelve walls, with two rooms for orientation films. You may hear Vajpayee’s verse and speeches if the playback is running. You may find a gallery with the old Jana Sangh lamp and other party symbols. That is the museum’s brief. It is not a general history of Lucknow, and it is not the archaeology of the State Museum.
There is an amphitheatre, a meditation hall and a yoga centre in the published list of buildings. Capacities in news copy do not agree, so do not quote a seat number from memory. Two large lawns have been spoken of for hire. A rally ground is part of the plan. Morning walkers and yoga groups have used the park since it opened; that is why the June 2026 free-hour order exists. Come for a walk, a museum hour, a look at the bronzes. Do not come expecting Janeshwar Mishra Park‘s long lawns without a memorial programme, and do not confuse the place with Lohia Park in Vipin Khand.
Visiting
LDA charges for the park and, separately, for the museum. Amar Ujala on 20 January 2026 reported the operating committee keeping park entry at Rs 15 and the museum at Rs 50, after a free week from inauguration through 31 December 2025. Later city reports said the museum rate was cut. On 21 June 2026 Amar Ujala reported an LDA order, after a request routed through Defence Minister and Lucknow MP Rajnath Singh: free entry for everyone from 5 am to 8 am, then Rs 15 for the park. Hours in local reports have the park on a summer/winter clock and the museum roughly 9 am to 5 pm. None of that is printed on the thin LDA webpage we fetched on 28 August 2026. Confirm park ticket, museum ticket, parking, and closing time at the gate you use.
Hardoi Road / Basant Kunj is the address for drivers. The green corridor and IIM Road are the approaches named in LDA briefings. There is no Metro station at the memorial. Autos and app cabs know the name now. Winter mornings are the kind hour for walking. May afternoons are hard on the open lawns. The museum is the indoor piece. Security can tighten on anniversary days. Carry water. Carry the ticket you were sold.
Nearby
The Gomti here is the embankment, not the lighted Gomti Riverfront walk of Gomti Nagar. That promenade, and Food Valley on Asha Jyoti Lane, are a different drive. Nausena Shaurya Vatika is the Navy garden in CG City, near Ekana, not this park. Ambedkar Memorial Park remains the Gomti Nagar stone memorial. For a wider map see Lucknow places. Bijli Pasi Fort was named in the inauguration speech as not far; treat that as a separate outing, not a gate inside this campus.
Come if you want the new memorial and a long lawn on the Hardoi side of town. Call it Rashtra Prerna Sthal with the driver. If you say only “the memorial park,” you may be taken to Ambedkar Park by habit.