Ridge to get ex-CM Virbhadra's statue, installation on June 23

Nearly four years after his death, a statue of Virbhadra Singh, the six-time chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, will be installed at the Ridge in Shimla on his birth anniversary on June 23.

- Shailee Dogra

SHIMLA: Announcing this at a press conference on Saturday, state public works minister and Virbhadra's son Vikramaditya Singh said that the statue of the longest-serving chief minister of the state would be installed next to the bust of Himachal Pradesh's first chief minister Yashwant Singh Parmar in Daulat Singh Park on the Ridge.

Virbhadra Singh, a scion of the erstwhile Rampur-Bushahr royal family, had died on July 8, 2021, after prolonged illness. At present, the Ridge has five statues. They are of Mahatma Gandhi, former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, founder chief minister Parmar and former lieutenant general Daulat Singh after whom the park is named.