Bengaluru, Nov 9: The 108 feet statue of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil on Friday is the "first and tallest bronze statue of a founder of a city", as per 'World Book of Records'.

Called the "Statue of Prosperity", it has been built to commemorate the contribution of Kempegowda, the founder of the city, towards the growth of Bengaluru.

"A matter of pride for us that the Statue of Prosperity is the first and tallest bronze statue of a founder of a city as per World Book of Records. An apt tribute to Bengaluru's founder Kempegowda. Standing at 108 ft, it symbolises his vision of a Global City," Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai tweeted along with a certificate from 'World Book of Records' on Wednesday.

The statue weighing 220 tonne has been installed at the Kempegowda International Airport here. It has a sword weighing 4 tonne.
The project, besides the statue, has a heritage theme park in an area covering 23 acres dedicated to the 16th century chieftain, together costing about Rs 84 crore to the government.

Kempegowda, a feudatory ruler under the erstwhile Vijayanagara Empire founded Bengaluru in 1537. He is revered, especially by the Vokkaliga community that is dominant in Old Mysuru and other parts of southern Karnataka.

Renowned sculptor and Padma Bhushan awardee Ram Vanji Sutar has designed the statue. Sutar had built the 'Statue of Unity' in Gujarat and the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Bengaluru's Vidhana Soudha.

As a precursor to the unveiling, 'Mruthike' (sacred mud) was collected from over 22,000 locations across the state, which was mixed symbolically with the mud beneath one of the four towers of the statue today.

Twenty one special vehicles collected the sacred mud, including villages, towns and cities during the last two weeks.

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Bareilly (UP), Nov 24: Three people died when their car fell into the Ramganga river from a partially constructed bridge here on Sunday, police said, adding that they suspect the driver was misled by its navigation system into taking the unsafe route.

The accident occurred around 10 am on the Khalpur-Dataganj road when the victims were travelling from Bareilly to Dataganj in the Badaun district, they said.

"Earlier this year, floods had caused the front portion of the bridge to collapse into the river, but this change had not been updated in the system," Circle Officer Ashutosh Shivam said.

The driver was using a navigation system and did not realise that the bridge was unsafe, driving the car off the damaged section, the police said.

There were no safety barriers or warning signs on the approach to the damaged bridge, leading to the fatal accident, Shivam said.

Upon receiving information, police teams from Faridpur, Bareilly and Dataganj police station rushed to the spot. They recovered the vehicle and the bodies from the river, Shivam added.

The circle officer said that bodies had been sent for post-mortem. Further investigation into the matter is underway.