Posted: Post Date – 01:15 PM, Thursday – Nov 10
Later in the day, Modi will attend a public event and speak at a mass rally, and he will also celebrate via the first “Vande Bharat Express” in Bengaluru between Mysore and Chennai in southern India.
Bangalore: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil the 108-foot-tall bronze statue of the city’s founder Nadaprabhu Kempegowda in Bengaluru on Friday, where he will unveil Terminal 2 of the international airport, which will cost about Rs 5,000 crore.
Later in the day, Modi will attend a public event and speak at a mass rally, and he will also celebrate via the first “Vande Bharat Express” in Bengaluru between Mysore and Chennai in southern India.
The prime minister’s visit is also politically significant for Karnataka’s ruling BJP, which is only about five months away from parliamentary polls as the Saffron party looks to return to power and set a goal of winning the most. 150 out of 224 seats.
Party leaders hope the visit will energize cadres and mobilize public support.
Modi, who will arrive in the city on Friday morning, will present flowers to the statues of holy poet Kanaka Dasa (due to Kanaka Jayanti’s birthday) and Maharshi Valmiki at the Vidhana Soudha premises here.
Both Kanaka Dasa and Valmiki are revered in the state, especially by the Kuruba and Valmiki (ST) communities.
He will then proceed to the Kranthiveera Sangolli Rayanna (KSR) railway station here, where he will board the Mysuru-Chennai Vande Bharat Express.
This will be the fifth Vande Bharat Express train in the country and the first in South India. It is expected to enhance connectivity between Chennai’s industrial hub and Bengaluru’s tech and startup hub, as well as the famous tourist city of Mysore.
At the same location, Modi will also disembark for the “Bharat Gaurav Kashi Yatra” train.
Karnataka was the first state to ride this train under the Bharat Gaurav scheme, and the Karnataka government and the Ministry of Railways are working together to transport pilgrims from the state to Kashgar. Pilgrims will receive comfortable accommodation and guidance when visiting Kashgar, Ayodhya and Prayagraj.
The Prime Minister will then inaugurate Terminal 2 of Kempegowda International Airport on the outskirts of Bengaluru at a cost of around Rs 5,000 crore.
The terminal is expected to double the airport’s passenger throughput from the current approximately 25 million passengers to 50-60 million passengers per year.
Terminal 2 is said to be designed as a nod to Bengaluru’s “Garden City”, with the passenger experience aimed at “walking in the garden”. Passengers will travel through more than 10,000 square meters of green walls, sky gardens and outdoor gardens.
According to the official release, the airport has established a benchmark for sustainable development, using 100% renewable energy throughout the campus, and the design of Terminal 2 incorporates sustainable development principles.
Under a sustainability initiative, Terminal 2 will be the largest terminal in the world, pre-certified platinum by the US GBC (Green Building Council) before starting operations, and the “Naurasa” theme brings together all the commissioned artworks Used in Terminal 2. The artworks reflect the heritage and culture of Karnataka and the wider Indian spirit.
Overall, the design and architecture of Terminal 2 was influenced by four guiding principles: Terminal in a Garden, Sustainability, Technology, and Art and Culture.
Modi will then move to a nearby venue where he will unveil the 108-foot-tall Nadaprabhu Kempegowda statue, the “first and tallest bronze statue of a city founder” in the World Records Book “.
Known as the “Prosperity Statue”, it was built to commemorate the contribution of city founder Kempegowda to the development of Bangalore.
The 218-ton (98-ton bronze and 120-ton steel) statue has been installed at Kempegowda International Airport here. It has a sword that weighs 4 tons.
In addition to the statues, the project features a 23-acre heritage theme park dedicated to 16th-century chiefs, costing the government about Rs 840 crore in total.
Kempegowda, a feudal ruler under the former Vijayanagara Empire, founded Bangalore in 1537. He is revered, especially in the Vokkaliga community that dominates Old Mysore and other parts of southern Karnataka.
Renowned sculptor and Padma Bhushan winner Ram Vanji Sutar designed the statue. Sutar built the “Unity Statue” in Gujarat and the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Vidhana Soudha, Bangalore.
A precursor to the unveiling ceremony, the “Mruthike” (sacred mud) was collected from more than 22,000 locations across the state and symbolically mixed with the mud beneath one of the statue’s four towers today.
In the past two weeks, 21 special vehicles have collected holy mud, including villages, towns and cities.
Following the unveiling of the statue and theme park, the prime minister will attend a public event that is expected to be attended by hundreds of thousands. After that, he will travel to Dindigul in the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu.
Careful security arrangements have been made throughout the city and at the venues where Modi will be participating.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has instructed officials to ensure no inconvenience is caused to motorists and commuters during the Prime Minister’s visit.
