Statue Of Unity: PM Narendra Modi To Unveil Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's 2,900-Crore Statue Of Unity Today In Gujarat: 10 Points

New Delhi: As a tribute to freedom icon Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on his 143rd birthday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will today unveil the 'Statue of Unity', which at 182 meters is the tallest in the world. The Sardar Patel Statue of the Statue of Liberty, 2,989 crore and is located in Gujarat, 3.2 km downstream of the Narmada dam. Anticipating protests by local authorities for the huge figure, ahead of the grand inaugural event.

Here is your 10-point cheatsheet on Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Statue of Unity:

1. At the launch ceremony, PM Modi will for soil and Narmada water into a 'Kalash'or urn, a statement from the Prime Minister's Office said. PM Modi opened the project five years ago on October 31, 2013, when he was the chief minister of Gujarat.
2. The statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India's first Home Minister, wearing a traditional dhoti and shawl, towering over river Narmada. Iron was collected from all over the country for the statue of Sardar Patel, also known as the Iron Man of India.
3. The statue 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. It took about 250 engineers and 3,400 plows to build the statue in 33 months.
4. The Statue of Unity will stand 177 feet higher than the world's tallest, China's Spring Buddha Temple in the central Henan province.
5. Local tribal leaders have announced a boycott of the inaugural function citing destruction of natural resources due to the memorial. The Gujarat government said the 185 families had been compensated and given 1,200 acres of new land.
6. The core of the statue is made up of 553 bronze panels – each panel has 10 to 15 micro panels. The panels were cast in China and imported into the United States of America.
7. The panels were cast in a foundry in China after an international bidding process.
8. The statue will have a viewing gallery at a height of 193 meters, which can accommodate 200 visitors at a time. This gallery at 153 meters height, will offer a view of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, its reservoir, and the Satpura and Vindhya mountain ranges.
9. The structure will have a dedicated museum to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at the base, and two high speed lifts will take people to the viewers' gallery, from where they can see beyond the Narmada Dam.
10. The expectation is 15,000 visitors each day.
11. The museum will have 40,000 documents, 2,000 photographs and a research center dedicated to Sardar Patel's life.

(With inputs from Agencies)