In proposing Ram statue, Yogi follows in Gujarat, Maharashtra's footsteps

Iconic statues, among other monuments and edifices, have always drawn a crowd, take the Statue of Liberty for example. The Uttar Pradesh government is hoping to draw a crowd too, of tourists, even though their project is not reported to be nearly as ambitious as the aforementioned structure, with a religious statue in the city of Ayodhya.

The Yogi Adityanath government plans to install a statue of Lord Rama on the banks of the River Saryu in Uttar Pradesh. According to media reports, the statue will be 100-metre long.

The statue is proposed to be built in Ayodhya, close to the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site, according to an NDTV report.

While sources cited by the article refused to confirm that it would be 100-metre long, they said that the height of the statue would be imposing. According to the report, the proposal, which has been sent to the state's Governor, is meant to boost religious tourism in the state.

The statue will be installed only after clearance from the National Green Tribunal, Principal Secretary Tourism Awanish Awasthi told news agency PTI on Tuesday. Earlier, while speaking to NDTV, Awasthi had confirmed the existence of such a proposal, saying that it was in the "conceptual stage" and that it was one among many proposals for the state's various tourist destinations. Awasthi pointed to similar statues he said could be found in Bali in Indonesia.

The proposed statue is part of a larger integrated development plan for Ayodhya, for which the Yogi Adityanath government has sent a detailed project report of Rs 195.89 crore to the Union Tourism Ministry, which has provided Rs 133.70 crore to the state so far, according to Indian Express.

The state and its people are no strangers to public projects to build statues. Former chief minister Mayawati's administration was a prolific statue builder too.

When she was UP's chief minister, Mayawati had been on a memorial-building spree.

On January 15, 2003, Mayawati had inaugurated the Bhimrao Ambedkar Samajik Parivartan Sthal, a memorial for the Dalit leader and architect of the Indian Constitution spread over 125 acres on the banks of the Gomti.

The memorial houses a statue of Ambedkar and, since its opening, the park has received several makeovers.

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