Bali governor urges construction on GWK eyesore to wrap it up

Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika would like the towering eyesore that is the unfinished construction on Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK) to hurry it up already.

In progress is a sculpture of Wisnu riding a giant winged garuda to sit atop a building in Ungasan’s GWK Cultural Park, that together is supposed to stand at 120 meters, making it taller than the American 93-meter Statue of Liberty. 

As it sits now, the pyramid of scaffolding is really the only major obstruction you can see, jutting out from the hills of Jimbaran and Ungasan.

“We hope the process can be accelerated in order for it to become the pride of the people of Bali,” Pastika said on Friday in Denpasar during a meeting with head GWK sculptor I Nyoman Nuarta. 

During the meeting, Pastika asked for a more detailed schedule of the statue’s manufacturing and process.

“We also are reminding the management to constantly coordinate with relevant agencies so that the entire development undertaken does not violate any rules, especially those related to spatial planning,” Antara Bali quoted the governor as saying. 

The mega-project has been years in the making and has even previously been embroiled in corruption allegations.  

Nuarta responded to the governor’s demands, saying that GWK is about 80 percent finished, but there are some challenges with the installation process. 

 

 

A photo posted by GWK Cultural Park (@gwkbali) on

 

“The biggest obstacle is the wind,” Nuarta said, explaining that the statue is about nine times larger in volume than the Statue of Liberty. 

The sculptor puts the timeline for finalization and installation at about two years—last year he had said he hoped it would be finished by 2017, so we’ll have to see if it keeps getting pushed back. 

 

MORE ON GWK

New GWK statue will tower over Statue of Liberty hopefully by 2017, construction director

Watchdog urges KPK to investigate corruption allegations surrounding GWK construction

GWK statue should finally be finished in 2017

 



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