The statue of the unit also pays tribute to Indian engineering skills, according to L & T

NEW DELHI, October 28: The Statue of Unity, built in tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, known as the Iron Man of India, would be the world's tallest and fastest to be completed in just 33 months, in Larsen & Toubro, the infrastructure giant, finished 11 years.
Located 182 meters from the entrance of the road and 208.5 meters from the entrance to the river, this iconic statue is taller than the 153-meter Spring Temple Buddha in China and almost two times higher than the famous Statue of Liberty in New York.
The giant statue is to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 31st.
Built at a cost of 2989 million rupees, the Statue of Unity project, apart from the bronze cladding that is a huge piece of work, was done internally, said L & T.
The statue is located about 3.5 km downstream from the Sardar Sarovar Dam on Sadhu Hill on the Narmada River bed.
The raft construction of the structure actually began on December 19, 2015 and took 33 months to complete. It has absorbed 180,000 cubic meters of cement concrete, 18,500 tons of reinforced steel, 6,500 tons of structural steel, 1,700 tons of bronze and 1,850 tons of bronze cladding, the conglomerate said.
The statue is conceived as a naturalistic representation of Sardar Patel in a characteristic costume in a walking posture. It is emerging from a star shaped geometric base that covers the entire Sadhu Hill.
In addition, the statue is thinner at the base, which goes against the standards imposed by other high statues. The pose also allowed for a gap of 6.4 meters between the two feet, which then had to be tested to withstand the wind speed, the company said.
"The structure of the statue had to be designed for a wind speed of 180 km per hour. And if you've seen all the huge statues in the world, they're based on a broad base. In the case of this statue, the two legs of the permanent chief had to be separated, which gave a narrow base to the structure. This was the biggest challenge because the structure must withstand wind speed at the same time and meet the aesthetic requirements of the sculptors, "said L & T.
Another challenge was the statue is a living legend and not an imaginary character.
"We developed the design of the statue using different techniques. We collected about 2,000 archival photographs and developed a single photo after consulting with multiple stakeholders such as historians and people who had seen Sardar. We used technology to convert two-dimensional photography into a three-dimensional model, "said L & T.
The shape of the shawl, its fall and texture are unique given the peasant context and the sculptor Ram Suttar had to work hard and diligently to get as close to reality as possible, said L & T. (PTI)

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