Jaitley statue for Arun Jaitley Stadium cost Rs 15 lakh, weighs 800 kg

By Qaiser Mohammad Ali New Delhi, Dec 26 : A six-foot tall bronze statue of late Arun Jaitley that is to be installed inside the Arun Jaitley Stadium at the Feroz Shah Kotla grounds here on his 68th birth anniversary on December 28 has come at a cost of around Rs 15 lakh and weighs around 800 kg. The veil that will cover the statue has cost Rs 1.5 lakh, said sources.
Jaitley was the president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) for 14 years from 1999 to 2013, and now his son Rohan Jaitley is heading the body.
“As of now, Home Minister Amit Shah is expected to unveil the statue at around noon on Monday, with Arun Jaitley’s family, Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and Anurag Thakur, Indian cricket board president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah, and former India and Delhi captains Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, who is also an MP, likely to be present on the occasion,” a source told IANS.
“At the moment, there is a 50-person cap on gatherings in Delhi due to the Covid-19 pandemic, so only 50 persons would be present on the occasion. Others who would be present include Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju, 18 DDCA directors — and possibly their wives — and a few more people,” he said.
The Jaitley statue arrived at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday afternoon and immediately a security cover was thrown around it, said an eyewitness.
“The statue arrived in a truck at around 3 pm on Saturday. The guards at the DDCA are keeping a strict vigil around the truck, from which the statue hasn’t been offloaded yet. It will probably remain in the truck the whole night and would be installed on the three-foot high platform on Sunday,” he said.