Gujarat artists to build Mother Mary’s tallest statue in Congo

VADODARA: When tourists visit this central African country in the coming months, they will watch in awe the towering statue of Mother Mary.
And the credit for turning Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) into a major tourist attraction by building the world’s tallest statue of Mother Mary will go to Gujaratis.
A group of artists from the state have started construction of the statue that will be 50 foot tall.“The statue will come up in the middle of a sprawling lake in Katebi Kolwezi city. It will be the world’s tallest statue and the World Book of Records have already given us a provisional certificate for it,” said Sachin Kaluskar who is curating the project.
Kaluskar and the six artists including Maharshi Panchal, Ajinkya Barde, Janak Panchal, Vinod Parmar, Bhavesh Panchal and Jagdish Vasava are camping in Congo for the project. “We will stay here for the next three months to build the statue. While the statue is being built by a private firm, the we have got the due permission,” Kaluskar told TOI.
“We are excited as we will be playing an important role in making Democratic Republic of Congo a hub of tourism as people from other African countries and the rest of the world would come here to catch a glimpse of the tallest statue of Mother Mary,” he added. The statue will be made of fiberglass with heavy metal structure inside. Plans are afoot to come up with recreational facilities around the statue so that the business tourists get a place to hang out in the city. “When we were offered the project of working on building the world’s tallest statue of Mother Mary, I was a bit skeptical. But people here are so hospitable that we are already feeling at home,” one of the artists Maharshi Panchal.