The season of the statues is in bloom as after the Statue of Unity, now Karnataka has decided to jump into the fray and cash in on statue tourism. To that end, it plans a 125-ft Mother Cauvery statue alongside a museum complex with two towers overlooking the KSR reservoir. The craze has even Tamil Nadu as a day after AIADMK unveiled a life-size statue of former CM and party supremo J Jayalalithaa was unveiled, on Thursday, DMK said that it would be unveiling a statue of her rival and former Chief Minister, M Karunanidhi on December 16.
According to reports, the Karnataka government is going to build the statue dedicated to Mother Cauvery 90 kms from Bengaluru, near the Krishna Raja Sagar reservoir in Mandya district at an estimated cost of around Rs 1,200 crore. As it also includes the musuem complex — with a bandstand, an indoor stadium and a replica of historical monuments — it will require about 400 acres of land and is expected to be ready after two years.
Irrigation minister DK Shivakumar said, "We are just coming up with an amusement park for tourism, like Disneyland. Mysore is a destination for tourism. There is the famous Brindavan Garden and we want to enrich it. We want the world to look at it."
The statue, meanwhile, will depict Mother Cauvery holding out a pot of which water will flow down continuously, to the three states it is the lifeline for — Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.
A statement from the DMK on Thursday said the Karunanidhi statue would be unveiled at the Party Headquarters 'Anna Arivalayam' next to the statue of his political mentor and late Chief Minister CN Annadurai, which would also be refurbished to mark the occasion.
Interestingly, like the legal hurdles created by the state government to bury Karunanidhi next to his mentor, the Chennai Corporation has denied permission for the DMK to install the deceased leader's statue next to his mentor and the location might be changed later.
A MUSEUM TOO
The statue and museum complex are expected to be ready in two years at an estimated cost of Rs 1,200 crore
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