New Delhi: October 31st was the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhai Patel, popularly known as India's Iron Man. He was Independent India's first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister and played an instrumental role in uniting India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi contends that Patel has not been adequately recognised by Indian historians and has been trying to rectify that.
On October 31st, he flagged the "Run for Unity " to commemorate Sardar Patel's birth anniversary and said, "Just as Ramakrishna Paramhansa remains incomplete without Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi's legacy cannot be fully written without Sardar Patel's contribution."
Modi biggest and lasting tribute to Patel is his plan to build a towering "Statue of Unity ", a memorial to Patel, on the Sadhu-Bet Island on the Narmada river in Gujarat. This will be the world's tallest statue, 182 meters (597.11 feet) high and will cost Rs. 2.979 crore ($488 million). The engineering firm Larsen and Toubro has won the contract and the statue should be finished by 2017.
Currently the Veera Abhaya Anjaneya Hanuman Swami in Vijayawada, Andhara Pradesh, is the tallest statue (41 meters) in India .
Here is a comparison of with the world's tallest statues:
Spring Temple Buddha: Located in Henan, China, is 153 metres. It is currently the tallest statue in the world. A Buddhist monastery is below the statue. The estimated project cost was around $ 55 million, of which $ 18 million was spent on the statue, which required approximately 1,100 pieces of copper weighing 1,000 tonnes. The statue was finished in 2008 within 11 years.
Ushiku Daibutsu: Located in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, completed in 1993 is 120 metres. The bronze statue It was built to commemorate the birth of Shinran, founder of the Jodo Shinshu, "True Pure Land School", as it is called, of Buddhism.
Statue Of Liberty: Located in New York, USA, is a 93-metre neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island. The statue was gifted by France on October 28, 1886. According to historian Yasmin Sabina Khan, in her 2010 book Enlightening the World: The Creation of the Statue of Liberty, a copper merchant donated copper valued at about $16,000, the equivalent of US$ 354,000 in 2014.
The Motherland Calls: Located in Volgogard, Russia, also known as the Mamayev Monument, built in 1967 to commemorate the World War II Battle of Stalingrad. The sculpture is 85 metres and uses 7,900 tonnes of concrete.
Christ The Redeemer: Located in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, was built by a French sculptor in 1931. It is 39.6 metres and weights 635 tonnes. It looks down on Rio from the peak of Corcovado mountain. Made of concrete and soapstone, it is a symbol of Brazilian Christianity. The estimated cost of the project was US $250,000 (the equivalent of $3.3 million in 2014) and it was completed in nine years.
Here is what the Statue of Unity is equivalent to:
- 5 missions to Mars. India Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) cost Rs 450 crore ($74 million)
- 425 solar power plants (photovoltaic). One solar power plant cost Rs 7 crore ($1.1 million).
- 2 US made UGM 84 L Harpoon Missile, each costs India Rs 2,440 crore ($400 million)
- 425 metro coaches. One Delhi Metro rail coach costs Rs 7 crore ($1.1 million).
- 3 Indian Institute of Technology. The cost of setting up one is Rs 760 crore.
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