BENGALURU: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday unveiled the ‘Statue of Prosperity’, the 108-foot-tall bronze statue of Bengaluru founder Nadaprabhu Kempegowda. The statue commemorates the contribution of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda, the founder of the city, towards the growth of Bengaluru.
Conceptualised and sculpted by Ram V Sutar of Statue of Unity fame, 98 tonnes of bronze and 120 tonnes of steel have gone into making this statue, PMO said. The Prime Minister received a warm welcome in Bengaluru today.
Earlier in the day, Modi inaugurated Terminal-2 of Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru. With the inauguration of T2, the passenger handling capacity as well as counters for check-in and immigration will double, helping the people immensely.
Built at a cost of around Rs 5,000 crore, Terminal 2 will be able to handle around 5-6 crore passengers from the current capacity of 2.5 crore annually.
The PM also flagged off Chennai-Mysuru Vande Bharat Express and Bharat Gaurav Kashi Darshan train at Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna (KSR) Railway Station in Bengaluru. This is the fifth Vande Bharat Express train in the country and the first such train in South India.
“It will enhance connectivity between the industrial hub of Chennai and the tech and startup hub of Bengaluru and the famous tourist city of Mysuru”, the PMO said.
Karnataka is the first state to take up the Kashi Darshan train under the Bharat Gaurav scheme in which the Government of Karnataka and the Ministry of Railways are working together to send pilgrims from Karnataka to Kashi. “The pilgrims will be provided with comfortable stay and guidance for visiting Kashi, Ayodhya and Prayagraj,” the PMO said.
The Prime Minister paid floral tributes to the statues of saint poet Kanakadasa and Maharshi Valmiki near Vidhana Soudha earlier in the day. “Today, on the auspicious occasion of Kanaka Dasa Jayanti, I paid homage to Sri Kanaka Dasa in Bengaluru. We will always be grateful to him for showing us the path of Bhakti, enriching Kannada literature and giving us a message of social unity”, he tweeted. (ANI)