Work On 108 Feet Statue Of Founder Of Bengaluru Kempegowda To Take Off On His Birth Anniversary Tomorrow 

On the occasion of the 511th birth anniversary of the founder of Bengaluru, Kempegowda, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa will lay the foundation stone for the construction of his mammoth bronze statue at the Bengaluru airport tomorrow (27 June).

Inspecting the preparations for the initiation of the work of the statue and the central park, Deputy Chief Minister Dr Ashwathnarayan C N said “the central park that will be built as a tribute to the founder of new Bengaluru will transform into a spectacular place of visit”.

The bhoomi pooja (initiation ceremony) of the work will take place on the 511th anniversary of the founder after whom the airport gets its name.

The project will come up at a total cost of Rs 80 crore. A model of the statue is ready and will be finalised once approved by the Chief Minister, said Ashwathnarayan, who is also the vice-president of the Kempegowda Development Authority, as reported.

Nadaprabhu Hiriya Kempe Gowda was a chieftain during the Vijayanagara era and was born in Yellahanka. He built the Bengaluru fort and township thereby laying the foundation of today’s capital city. His nearly five-decade reign gave the city its numerous temples and tanks among other efforts of social reform and planned urban development.

He founded the city in 1537 and the tales of how he envisioned this city and manifested it as a fortress with markets for all scales of trade, sufficient water reservoirs, effective routes of commute is popular history and hold many a lesson in urban planning. He built four towers in four corners of the city wishing that the city grows upto those limits. Five centuries later, the city has grown literally leaps and bounds beyond his original city.

The statue was originally announced as a 101 feet tall one at the cost of Rs 100 crore last September. But in January, it was decided that a theme park would be constructed on 23 acres of land near the airport and the statue measuring 108 feet would come up at the park.

The opposition, which was the one to announce the statue in the first place two years ago, has been questioning the timing of the foundation stone laying ceremony in the middle of the pandemic. The government though has defended it saying this was a project for which the budgetary allocation had already been made, and the pandemic is no reason for work on all other fronts to be stopped.