Bengaluru airport to get Rs 20 cr theme park around giant Kempegowda statue
The mammoth 108-feet bronze statue of Bengaluru’s founder Nadaprabhu Kempegowda to be unveiled at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) will now be surrounded by a Rs 20 crore theme park. A contract for the park has reportedly been awarded to a firm called KNK Construction Private Limited. Mud from all 31 districts of Karnataka will be used in developing the park, the state government has announced. A 45-day campaign will be launched on September 1 to collect ‘sacred mud’ from different places, CM Bommai said, adding, “Mud will be gathered from lakes, ponds, rivers, kalyanis, pushkarinis (temple tanks) and streams from villages across the state as part of the programme.”
Additionally, mud from the houses of achievers in various fields from the state will be collected and used in developing the theme park. The 45-day campaign has been named ‘Nada kattona banni’ (Let’s build the state) by the Kempegowda Development Authority. According to projections of the state government, the mud collection from all over the state would set a Guinness World Record. The Karnataka government has sanctioned Rs 20 crore for the theme park to house the statue of Kempegowda. It will reportedly be named the ‘Statue of Prosperity’ once it is installed on the airport premises. The statue is expected to be unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November or December, Deccan Herald reported.
According to DH, the Urban Development Department (UDD) of Karnataka has asked for an exemption from the requirements of Section 4(g) of the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements (KTPP) Act in order to award the contract for the park to a firm called KNK Construction Private Limited. Section 4(g) of the KTPP Act states that the “provisions of Chapter II (Regulation of Procurement) shall not apply to the procurement of goods and services in respect of specific procurements as may be notified by the government from time to time.” The clause allows exceptions to the tendering process for specific procurements where some kind of specialisation is involved.
KNK Construction Private Limited will be responsible for developing the 23-acre theme park, which will reportedly include lighting, landscaping, water fountains, and a cascading water body. The Finance Department which gave its consent has instructed the UDD to make sure the private firm complies with quality standards, DH reported. It was in 2019 that then Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa announced plans to spend nearly Rs 100 crore to install a bronze statue of Kempegowda at the city's international airport. The current Chief Minister Bommai, who took the plan forward, said that the statue was built at a cost of Rs 64 crore and will be unveiled in the coming months.
The statue will be built on a 23-acre plot of land at the airport that will serve as a heritage park honouring Kempegowda. A component of the statue, a giant bronze sword weighing more than 4,000 kg, arrived in May this year, speeding up construction work. The sword was transported from Delhi in a special truck. Dr CN Ashwath Narayan, state Minister for Higher Education, had received the 35-foot-long sword at the Bengaluru airport.