The 70-foot statue of Lionel Messi in Lake Town, inaugurated virtually by the legend during his India tour last year, is set to be pulled down after engineers declared it “unsafe”, a senior state government official said.
Like many public installations in the city, the fibreglass structure had drawn criticism for its appearance. Several residents and football fans had pointed out that the statue bore little resemblance to Messi.
An inscription on the platform says the statue “was an initiative of Shri Sujit Bose”. Located off VIP Road, it was built by Sreebhumi Sporting Club, of which Bose was president.
A former state minister and MLA from Bidhannagar, Bose is currently in Enforcement Directorate custody in connection with alleged corruption in municipal recruitments.
Inaugurated on December 13, the statue featured in a video posted on X by the Argentine footballer, showing Messi holding the FIFA World Cup.
Sources said a local resident had lodged a complaint with Bidhannagar police, alleging that the structure was unsafe and posed a threat to passersby. The resident claimed the statue swayed even at low wind speeds.
“Based on complaints from local residents, engineers from the state public works department inspected the statue. They found it unsafe and decided it should be removed,” the government official told Metro. “It will be pulled down very soon.”
Questions had been raised from the outset about the need for erecting such massive statues on public land and whether authorities would maintain them once the initial excitement faded.
After the change of government in Bengal, state PWD engineers reportedly found that the statue had been built without permission from the department. The new BJP government has already demolished a clock tower in Garia and the giant torso-less footballer’s legs outside Salt Lake Stadium, erected ahead of the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup.
Metro had earlier reported how pavements across Calcutta had shrunk as statues and busts came up, often without approval from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation or other custodians of public spaces.
