NEW DELHI: Bengaluru will soon witness the unveiling of the statue of its founder, Nadaprabhu Kempegowda, at the Kempgowda International Airport (KIA) in Devanahalli. Called the ‘Statue of Prosperity’, it towers 108-feet-high and is likely to be recorded as the world’s tallest statue of a founder of a city.
Initially, the statue was conceived in miniature terms and the proposed location was outside the limits of the airport. Even the proposed height was around 15 feet, just to signal government intent. But that idea never took off.
When the B S Yediyurappa government assumed office in 2019, he and his Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan C N, a Vokkaliga leader, felt that credit to Nadaprabhu was long overdue and that efforts to host his statue on a grand scale should be expedited without delay.
The government considered several areas before deciding to install the statue near the airport where it will be visible to the millions of passengers that enter and exit the city each day. The two leaders believed that this will be the ideal setting for letting the world know about the city and, most importantly, its history.
It was therefore agreed that the Nadaprabhu Kempegowda statue will be located on the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) premises and 23 acres of central park area were allotted for the project after lengthy consultations with the relevant authorities.
Ram V Sutar, a renowned sculptor who sculpted the Statue of Unity in Gujarat and whose family has been involved in this scientific craft for three generations, was chosen for the job. The government is also constructing a theme park at the location of the statue that will reflect Kempegowda’s idea of Bengaluru. The theme park will have a model of Bengaluru that includes tiny lakes, cultural symbols, museums and other elements.
According to Dr Ashwath Narayan, vice-chairman of the Kempegowda Heritage Area Development Authority and Minister for Higher Education, IT&BT, Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood, the entire project should be finished in six months.
The Kempapura property in Ramanagara district, which is five-and-half acres and is thought to be Kempegowda’s Veera Samadhi, has been purchased by the Karnataka government. With this, the groundwork for the area’s development has been laid.
The minister also imagines a system in which technologists, culture and history enthusiasts, and others are highly interested in researching Kempegowda’s life and disseminating his approach to infrastructure. Kempegowda envisioned Bengaluru as being productive, entrepreneurial, infrastructure- and culture-rich, and today’s residents are receiving the benefits.
When asked how Karnataka managed this project despite time and mobility constraints induced by Covid-19, Dr Ashwath Narayan said, “Since it is a very big structure, it had to be created part by part, with precision planning. Due care was taken to ensure that it was immune to heavy winds and other natural forces. Some parts had to be transported in trailers that rolled on as many as 12 wheels. Transportation was by no means an easy task. But, because the sculptors have had previous experience in logistics, it was smoothly managed”.
Kempegowda is not just a person, for the residents of Karnataka. He is a living force, and therefore, it was increasingly being felt that his story needed to be told to the world, especially when Bengaluru is now an internationally known tech city, welcoming people from across the globe and cultures. The reason behind the giant statue is the fact that while several global cities have icons they publicly celebrate, and that often attract international praise for ‘rootedness’ and ‘civilizational pride’, Bengaluru, despite having so many rich facets, did not have one in the monument, the minister pointed out.
This statue, therefore, is an effort to unite residents of Bengaluru and inspire them to ‘own the city, just as Kempegowda did, with his vision. Bengaluru is one of the very rare cities in the world that boasts of richness across spectra such as education, technology, culture and cuisine, to name a few, he noted.
According to Indian tradition, people are profoundly attached to their country on both an emotional and a spiritual level. Therefore, it was believed that for this initiative to succeed, Karnataka’s people and soil needed to be fully committed, he noted.
According to Dr Ashwath Narayan, this way of thinking also permeates the BJP, which is why this campaign is taking a grassroots approach and collecting soil from all around the state to utilise in the theme park’s Gopuras. (ANI/SRV)