The fish pond island in the swimming pool area now has a huge fibre statue named Vijay Rath. The structure, about 15 ft high and 25 ft wide, has Krishna driving Arjuna's chariot, derived from The Mahabharata and was unveiled by mayor Sabyasachi Dutta on Monday.
The statue was a part of the island beautification measures ratified by the board of councillors of the now-defunct Bidhannagar Municipality, said mayoral council member Devasish Jana. The other statues, which recently got fresh coats of paint, came up in mid-2015.
“The paint job was ordered ahead of Mother Teresa’s canonisation. It would have looked odd if her statue had paint peeling off even as the world celebrated her sainthood,” said the mayor. Mother’s statue was in better condition than only Sister Nivedita's, which had the coat of bronze missing in multiple patches on the structure’s upper half to reveal the white base.
Pictures by Sudeshna Banerjee and Sanat Kumar Sinha
According to Jana, the statues’ annual maintenance contract has been handed to a private contractor who has to carry out repair work on the statues whenever required.
“Even if we take the cost of painting the statues at regular intervals it comes to less than sculpting statues in stone or metal,” said Jana.
“Sister Nivedita’s statue was painted first followed by all the others,” he added.
