Chennai: Even before the mammoth statue of Lord Vishnu measuring 64 feet and weighing over 300 tons, could reach the destination in Bengaluru to be formally installed, the impressive image started attracting hundreds of devotees from Villupuram and Tiruvannamalai districts in the State. En route Bengaluru, the 240-tyre trailer, carrying the statue of Vishwaroopa Mahavishnu, had to halt near Senji (Gingee) (in Villupuram district), about 155 km from here. According to sources the trailer was stopped at Senji apprehensive of damaging houses. Efforts were on to explore alternate route to take the statue without causing any problems to the habitations.
The impressive statue was carved out of a hillock in Korakkottai village in Vandavasi taluk of Tiruvannamalai, near here, and carefully placed on the 240-tyre trailer, recently. It had moved nearly 300 metres in the last few days. It took three days to move the vehicle from the quarrying site. From Senji the statue would be moved through Tiruvannamalai, Hosur and finally to Bengaluru.
Atleast 30 persons from the Mumbai-based logistics firm Reshamsingh Group are involved in moving the statue from the quarry site and Thellar-Desur Road. The geology and mining department had granted permission to S. Sadananda of Temple Trust to quarry 420 cubic metres of charnokite rock from the village in Oct. 2014.
Tiruvannamalai collector K. S. Kandasamy, who is the government appointed nodal officer to facilitate Kothandaramaswami Charitable Trust in Bengaluru to transport the idols, had visited the spot and enquired with the temple administration about the preparedness. The idols of Lord Vishnu and the seven-headed Adisesha would be shifted in about a month’s time.
A larger number of devotees who reached Senji, offered prayers in front of the statues and some of them were seen applying vermilion and turmeric on them. Says Kalaiselvi of Senji, “I am very happy to see the Lord here, though I saw him at Thellar, but this is a unique experience. It is a beautifully carved
statue.”
