Travellers coming to Bengaluru¡¯sKempegowda International Airport (KIA) on the outskirts of the city will soonbe welcomed by a gigantic 108-ft bronze statue of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda,credited to be the founder of the city.
A similar statue will also be installedinside the Vidhana Soudha premises within a year, Karnataka Chief MinisterBasavaraj Bommai has announced.
Nadaprabhu Kempegowda, a 16th century chieftain of the Vijayanagara empire, is credited as the founder of Bengaluru.
It is said that he conceived the idea of anew city while hunting with his minister, and later marked its territory byerecting towers in four corners of the proposed city.
Kempegowda is also known to have developedaround 1,000 lakes in the city to cater to drinking and agricultural needs, TheIndian Express reported.
It is said that he was from the dominantagricultural Vokkaliga community in south Karnataka.
His name is everywhere in the city-theKempegowda International Airport, the Kempegowda Bus Stand, and even the mainmetro station in the city is called Nadaprabhu Kempegowda metro station. Anarterial road in the old city is called the K G Road or the Kempegowda Road.
The 108-ft bronze statue is being constructed in a 23-acre heritage park on the airport premises. It has a 4,000kg sword which arrived at the Bengaluru airport from Delhi last month. Thesword was brought in a special truck from Delhi.
In September 2019, then Chief Minister B SYediyurappa had announced plans to install a bronze statue of Kempegowda at thecity¡¯s international airport at the cost of Rs 100 crore.
This announcement had come a day after amassive protest by the Vokkaliga community in Bengaluru over the allegedtargeting of its members, including Congress leader D K Shivakumar, the Caf¨¦Coffee Day founder V G Siddharth (deceased) and former Chief Minister H DKumaraswamy by central probe agencies.
The protest had come at a time when theBJP was making plans to poach several Vokkaliga community leaders from southernKarnataka as part of its strong push to make inroads in the old Mysuru region,which is considered as the Vokkaliga stronghold.
The plan of constructing the statue was taken forward by the present CM Basavaraj Bommai.
The CM has said that the statue will beunveiled along with the inauguration of the much-awaited internationalairport¡¯s Terminal-2.
¡°The statue of Kempegowda is in its finalstages of completion and it is the tallest statue of Kempegowda,¡± Bommai said.
Kempegowda is an iconic figure amongKarnataka¡¯s second most dominant Vokkaliga community after Lingayats. Thesaffron party plans to woo the Vokkaliga community by honouring Kempegowda,according to the BJP sources.
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