62-Ft Hanuman statue stranded on Bengaluru NH-48

Bengaluru: A 750-tonne, 62-foot Hanuman Statue from Kolar in East Bengaluru was stranded for hours on NH-48 for violating the model election code of conduct.

The vehicle carrying the statue was halted near Hoskote, 35km from the city at NH-48 for hours on Monday until officials from the Election Commission intervened and gave it a green signal to continue on Tuesday said Sri Rama Chaithanya Vardhini Trust, Trustee Muniraju.

According to the sources the trust members had applied for permission to transport the statue and were accorded with a rider: that they wouldn’t damage the road and if they did, take responsibility to restore it.

“On Monday evening, police might have stopped the vehicle to check whether the trust had got necessary permissions to transport the statue into the city. The vehicle was allowed to resume its journey on Tuesday,” they added.

Bengaluru Traffic Police officers, however, said they were not in the loop as the incident happened beyond their jurisdiction.

This 62-Ft hanuman Statue is believed to be tallest Hanuman Statue in the world. According to the trustee the final sculpting will be completed at the place where it shall be installed.

The statue is being sculpted from a stone found in the underground at Byrapura. The stone weighed about 1450 tonnes and had to be lifted 4 feet above the ground.

“We searched for such a large stone for three months. About 30 sculptors from Shivarapatna, a village in Malur taluk of Kolar district, renowned for its traditional sculpture, were pressed into service to downsize the monolith to a 750-tonne statue.

At Kacharakanahalli, the sculptors will be joined by other world-class sculptors to complete the task. The statue is expected to be fully ready before next April, and be installed by Sri Rama Navami,” said the trustee.