After Gujarat’s Statue of Unity, K’taka to Build One for Cauvery

Proposed photo of the statue. 

(Photo altered by The Quint)

The Karnataka state government has reportedly unveiled a proposal to build a statue in honour of ‘Mother Cauvery,’ the river which provides water to three different southern states.

The statue will be of a woman holding a pot which is being tipped over, and water will pour out of this pot continuously. Water will be pumped up in order to attain this.

In its proposal, the government stated that the statue would be 125 feet and would be built around the Krishna Raja Sagar reservoir in Karnataka’s Mandya district, located about 90 kilometres from Bengaluru city, according to reports.

The project will reportedly cost around Rs 1,200 crores and will span across an area of 400 acres. According to reports, it will be completed in the next two years.

Proposal Came After Statue of Unity in Gujarat

The proposal to build the statue comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi has unveiled the statue of Sardar Vallabhai Patel (Statue of Unity) in Vadodara Gujarat last month, dubbed the ‘Statue of Unity.’ The structure stands 182 metres tall and cost around Rs 3,000 crores to build.

Along with the ‘Mother Cauvery’ statue, a smaller statue of Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar has also been planned.

The two proposed statues are key attractions in the recent project taken up together by the Tourism and Water Resources Department, in an effort to improve tourism in the state. Media reports have called it a ‘Disneyland-like’ project.

In addition to the statue, this project will also include two glass houses at 360 feet to give an aerial view of the reservoir, a museum, a band stand, an indoor stadium and several replicas of historical monuments, all intended to help increase tourism in Karnataka.

Karnataka state’s Water Resources Minister, DK Shivakumar, added that while the state is allocating and providing the land for the project, they are looking to rope in private investors for funding of the same.

(Published in an arrangement with The News Minute)