Waiting to stand tall...

Waiting to stand tall...
Deccan Herald

Touted as the fifth tower of Kempegowda, this one at Hudson Circle has crossed many hurdles and might not see the light of day in a year, as scheduled.

The work that began on July 11, 2005 on this cement structure is temporarily stalled thanks to problems encountered in civil works.

The ‘model Kempegowda Tower,’ was planned by the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike in 2004, as part of the annual Kempegowda Day celebrations.

The Palike which has the Kempegowda tower as its logo, under the aegis of the then mayor P R Ramesh, planned to construct this tower near its headquarters, “to restore the cultural heritage of Bangalore, giving it a touch of modernity.” Renovation of the Hasi Karga pond nearby was also on the cards.

The project has been fraught with delays since then. First, it was a problem with getting a bidder for the tender of this project.

“It was only in response to our second call that we got a bidder,” says Ramesh. During the earth work, while laying the foundation for the tower, the project contractor discovered that a major pipeline providing water to the area and all other services lines were running underneath this Circle.

“It took a while for the BWSSB and other agencies to shift these lines,” says an engineer at the work site.

The expenditure on the tower will cross the initial estimate of Rs 50 lakh because of time and consequently, cost escalation, says Ramesh.

“At a time when most traffic circles are giving way due to rush on the roads, Hudson Circle, considered the central point of Bangalore is still making people go in circles and this time with a concrete structure as an eyesore in the middle,” says a road–user.

The tower, 60ft in height and 30 mts dia, will be built with Sagarahalli Granite, the same stone used in the construction of Vikasa Soudha. The tower will have a logo of Kempegowda.

The four towers built by the chieftain in the Vijayanagar Empire in the 16th century, credited to have founded Bangalore, are in Lalbagh, Kempambudhi tank, Mekhri Circle and Ulsoor.

Still unknown

But a fact unknown to most Bangaloreans is that historians refer to four more towers as the City’s boundaries at Gavi Gangadhareswara, Nanjamba Agrahara, Basavanna Temple and near Binny Mills.

All of these have not been traced!