Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday arrived in Bangalore to unveil a 108-feet tall bronze statue of city’s founder ‘Nadaprabhu’ Kempegowda and inaugurate the  Terminal 2 of the International Airport. 

The statue has been dubbed as the ‘Statue of Prosperity’ or ‘Pragatiya Prathime’ by Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. It is located on the Bengaluru International Airport premises. 

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Modi was received by Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot, Bommai and several of his cabinet colleagues, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, state BJP President Nalin Kumar Kateel, BJP Parliamentary Board member B S Yediyurappa among many at the HAL Airport. 

The PM  will first pay floral tributes to the statues of saint-poet Kanaka Dasa and Maharshi Valmiki at the ‘Vidhana Soudha’. He will then visit the Kranthiveera Sangolli Rayanna (KSR) Railway Station to flag off the first ‘Vande Bharat Express’ between Mysuru and Chennai via Bangalore. 

He will then visit the airport. 

All about the Kempegowda statue: 

Located at the Terminal 2 of Bangalore’s international airport, the statue of Kempegowda, which is the “first and tallest bronze statue of a founder of a city”, as per ‘World Book of Records’.

The statue is made of bronze and is placed in a 23-acre space on the airport premises. The mammoth statue has come up at a cost of over Rs 80 crore. It includes a sword that weighs about four tons. It is 108-feet in height. 

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The Terminal 2 of the Bangalore airport is expected to double the passenger handling capacity of the airport to 5-6 crore passengers per annum, from the current capacity of about 2.5 crore.

President of Karnataka Congress D K Shivakumar questioned as to why government funds were used to install a 108-feet statue of Bengaluru founder Nadaprabhu Kempegowda at the international airport here.

“Doing it (installing the statue) using government funds is a big crime. We (Karnataka govt) have given the land and also funds for the Bengaluru International Airport Limited. Out of 4,200-acre land, 2,000 acre was given at only Rs 6-lakh per acre. Along with money, they have shares. It (BIAL) should have used its money, why use government money,” Shivakumar said.