95-ft Periyar statue, Tamil Nadu’s tallest, to come up in Trichy in 3 years

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TRICHY: A 95-foot-tall statue of social reformer Periyar E V Ramasamy and a slew of educational and entertaining facilities such as library, research centre and wax museum are slated to come up on 27 acres at Siruganur on the outskirts of Trichy city. Periyar self-respect propaganda institute (Periyar trust) will soon initiate construction work on the Rs 100-crore edutainment facility along the Trichy-Chennai national highway.

The state government had granted permission for erecting the statue recently. DK president K Veeramani had personally met chief minister M K Stalin and thanked him for the gesture. According to the leaders of the Dravidian movement, the statue will have a 40-feet pedestal, altogether making it stand at a height of 135 feet from the surface. Once commissioned, the statue will be the tallest in the state, surpassing the Valluvar statue (133 feet) in Kanyakumari.

The organisers said the statue may have an elevator facility to scale the entire structure. However, a decision on allowing the public to access the statue to have a bird’s eye view of the complex is yet to be taken. “The construction work of the Periyar world complex may go on for three years. It will be spacious. We are mobilising funds through donations,” P Subramaniam, a senior representative of the Periyar self-respect propaganda institute told TOI. The trust will submit the documents for building plan approval on September 17 (Friday) that marks the birth anniversary of Periyar E V Ramasamy, the patriarch of the Dravidian movement. The complex has a slew of proposals promoting science and the Dravidian movement. A research centre on the movement, a science exhibition hall, planetarium with small movie halls, library with study centre, a wax museum on the movement’s leaders and light & sound show to educate children are among the facilities planned at Periyar world at Siruganur, situated about 25 km from Trichy city. Situated on the Trichy-Chennai NH, which a crucial link for central and south Tamil Nadu with Chennai, it will have public parks for children and food courts, the organisers said.

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