BENGALURU: Work on installation of the monumental Veeragallu inside the premises of the National Military Memorial re-started on Thursday evening after it was stalled for the last three days. Finishing works for the erected monolith, that is meant to serve as a homage to martyrs, had to be stopped abruptly after its sculptor Ashok Gudigar filed a case on Monday against the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) demanding more payment for his creation.
A senior BDA official said the case was disposed of on Thursday in the High Court with the verdict given in favour of the Authority. According to R S Gowda, Assistant Executive Engineer, Infrastructure Division of BDA, “According to the contract entered into by the sculptor, he was to be paid Rs 94 lakh for the 75-foot Veeragallu. We have already paid him 90% of his payment in the form of few instalments. The statue erection has been completed and a few finishing works remain which are getting completed.
Gowda said that Gudigar filed a case that BDA had not paid him the right amount as well as asking for more payment. “BDA had all the bills as proof towards payment made and we submitted it to the court during the hearings held on Wednesday and Thursday. In addition to it, we made the court understand that Rs 94 lakh only was the contracted payment and it cannot be hiked by the sculptor suddenly. The court accepted all our documents and ruled in our favour,” he said.
The statue, meant to be installed in January 2011, is finally taking shape after a eight-year delay.
The 450-tonne statue was readied at Koira quarry in Devanahalli and reached the memorial on June 26, after being transported for 50 km to Bengaluru on a trailer. The transportation cost alone came to a whopping Rs 5.46 crore and it took 22 days to reach the venue, inching its way through the city’s traffic.
Chief Secretary T M Vijaya Bhaskar had recently ordered that all repair works at the Memorial had to be completed by December 16 so that the statue could be unveiled to commemorate Vijay Diwas Day.