Statue breaks rules, wastes resources

On Oct 8, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said on its website that the installation of a statue of legendary general Guan Yu in Jingzhou city of Hubei province violated local regulations.

According to the ministry, the local park had applied only for building the statue's base, but went on to install the statue that is 57.3 meters high against Jingzhou's regulation limiting buildings to be less than 24 meters in height.

Even the cost of building the statue, 172.9 million yuan ($26.4 million), far exceeds the approved budget. Worse, the park promoted the structure as the world's tallest bronze statue to attract tourists but could generate only 13 million yuan in revenue in the past four years.

After the issue caught the public's attention, the local authorities responded by saying they will move the statue elsewhere. While that might be a good idea, the statue cost a huge amount to build and relocating it will cost more money.

According to an official release, the local authorities will ask experts to do a feasibility study for relocating the statute, and then make a detailed plan. Which raises more questions. Who will pay the experts? Where will the statue be relocated? Will that not add to labor and other costs?

The statue is so huge, even destroying it will cost money, not to mention a waste of resources.

At the center of the problem lies bad planning. When they proposed to build the statue, did they do a feasibility study or did they ignore the procedures?

The problem would not have arisen had they asked themselves these questions earlier. The local authorities need to learn from the statue blunder. It always pays to do some research and work out a plan before going about building or installing statues. Also, public money and resources should not be wasted in this fashion.