Bengaluru: Bengaluru founder Nadaprabhu Kempegowda’s statue installed by the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) was unveiled in a park near Hebbal Flyover here on Monday, March 26. 

Bengaluru Development Minister K J George inaugurated the statue and Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda was also present. “Hebbal is like main entrance to the city. This beautiful statue will welcome those who enter Bengaluru,” Krishna Byre Gowda said on the occasion. 

The statue which is in ‘horse rider’ shape, weighs around 2.75 tonnes. It is 4.87 meters tall and was built at a cost of Rs 49.58 lakh. The stone wall was constructed at a cost of Rs 53 lakh and is 11.50 meters in length, 9.10 meters in breadth and 8.53 meters in height. The artists took two years to build the whole structure.

Meanwhile, the members of Kempegowda Okkaliga Association members were furious as the BDA unveiled the statue before developing the landscape of the park. The work on the stone wall is still incomplete. Still, the statue is unveiled in hurry by the state government for the elections, they said. 
 
The project of building a statue of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda was pending for years. So, it was taken on priority. After the completion of flyover extension work, the park will be developed, said a BDA Engineer.