Things about Statue of Unity, the world's tallest construction, important to know

On the day of 31 October, 2018, the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, raised the foundation stone for the Statue of Unity that has been made in the memory of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who was an Indian politician and who served as the first Deputy Prime Minister of India. He was a successful lawyer, a statesman, a freedom fighter and a founding father of the Republic of India. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is known as 'The Iron Man of India'.

(Edited Photo, original source : Twitter/@PMOIndia)

The Statue of Unity, which has been stamped as the world's tallest statue, was founded at the Sadhu-Bet Island approximately 3.5 km South off the Sardar Sarovar Dam at Kevadia in the Narmada district of Gujraj. It was the long-cherished dream of the PM of India, Narendra Modi, to build a statue in memory of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

Here are some interesting facts about this humongous creation of Statue of Unity:

• The Statue of Unity measures 182 meter or 597 feet in height and the base is 249 meter or 790 feet, making it the world's tallest statue.

• The Statue of Unity is deemed to be the symbol of honesty and unity.

• The statue occupies 20,000 sq. meter of land and is surrounded by a 12 sq. km an artificial lake.

• The announcement of the building of this statue was done on 2010, and the construction started on October 31st, 2013 which came to an end in between October 2018.

• When Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujrat, he had been cherishing the dream of building a statue in tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. His dream has come true and it is indeed a subject of great delight. 

• About 50 rooms, a wide valley, a sophisticated food court as well as developed communication system were made for the visitors beside the Statue of Unity.

• On becoming the Prime Minister of India in October 2014, Narendra Modi gave the Larsen and Toubro (L&T) the responsibility to build the statue. The making of this statue costs estimated Rs. 2989 crore, that is 420 million US dollar. 

• The Statue of Unity is made of 70,000 metric ton of cement, 18,500 metric ton of steel and 1,800 metric ton of bronze. 

•  The Statue of Unity is so tall that the height of the head of Sardar Patel is equal to a seventh-floor building and the button attached to the coat measures 2.5 in width.

•  It took 250 engineers and 200 Chinese labors along with 4,076 labors to complete this gigantic project.

• The very interesting fact about this statue is that it has two high-speed lift within that can carry up to 50 people to the height of 153 meter where there is a viewing gallery for around 200 visitors to bask in the panoramic beauty of Sardar Patel Dam, Valley and hills in front of the statue.

• Within the statue there are a research center, a museum, a library, a audio-visual department and many other things of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

• On the outside of the statue there is a good system that will draw more and more visitors to this place of the Statue of Unity. Moreover, there is a number of CCTV cameras for security that can range up to 5 km at best.

• This statue can withstand earthquake up to 6.8 on Richter Scale and a velocity of wind up to 60 miles per hour.

I must say that this Statue of Unity outreached any other statue in the world like New York's 'Statue of Liberty' or China's 'Spring Temple Buddha'. There is no doubt that it will be the center of attraction to the whole world with its gigantic figure and the very sophisticated construction. Needless to say, this wonderful creation has already left many countries of the world with awe and wonder.