PM Modi inaugurates Giant Statue of Unity in Gujarat

Guwahati, October 31, 2018:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday, inaugurated the Statue of Unity in Gujarat's Kevadiyain, towering over the Narmada River.

The statue is built as a tribute to the ‘Iron Man of India,’ Sardar Vallabhbai Patel on his 143^rd birth anniversary.

The Statue of Unity is touted to be the world’s tallest statue at 182 metres (the base being 240 metres) and broke the record of the current tallest statue – the Spring Temple Buddha in China. It is also twice as the size of the Statue of Liberty in New York.

Built at a cost of Rs. 2,989 crore, the effigy has been designed by Padma Bhushan-winning sculptor Ram V Sutar and has been built by Larsen and Toubro and the state-run Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd.

The statue required over 18,000 tonnes of reinforced steel and 1,700 tonnes of bronze, 70,000 tonnes of cement and 6,000 tonnes of structural steel.