MODERN MARVELS!

 STATUE OF UNITY

 

The tallest statue in the world(182 m), almost twice the height of Statue of Liberty(93 m), nearly five times the height of Christ the Redeemer(38 m), its even higher than the Spring Temple Buddha(153 m) in China by 29 meters. A record setting statue and its here in a faraway corner of western India. 

THE STATUE OF  UNITY!

The world's tallest statue is situated in the state of Gujarat on a small island course Sadhu Bet on the river Narmada. The statue of unity is a tribute to one of India's greatest leaders, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

 

A towering figure in India's freedom struggle. Sardar Patel was also the nation's first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. For many, it was his resolve that forged the Union of India. Sardar Patel was possibly after Gandhi the most important person in the freedom struggle from 1928 onward. He in effect was the backbone of the Congress. For him the nation always came first.

Gandhi, the Mahatma, Nehru, the Statesman and Patel, the great leader or Sardar were the trinity that led the country to independence and onward to stability.

Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel were a very strong team. They had the differences but all of them were working to a single goal, A FREE INDIA!

By 1946, one year before India's independence, efforts to unify hundreds of princely states into one nation had begun. As interim Home Minister, Sardar Patel journeyed the country from Kashmir to Jodhpur, Hyderabad to Junagadh to pursued rajas and nawabs to join the Union of India. Since most of the states weren't keen to join, Sardar Patel dealt with them in a very gentle but really firm manner to ensure that they all came on board one by one. If there is a founder of the map of India today, it is Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. India would have become 400 different countries or even 500 but without him. The unity is one thing massive associated with him.

Sardar Patel also known as the 'IRON MAN OF INDIA' spent years negotiating with one princely state after another persuading some with privy purses and official positions and warning others with force. For his vital role in the creation of an unified sovereign nation, he's widely regarded as 'The Architect of Modern India'. 

Aptly named statue of unity, it was envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi while he was still the Chief Minister of Gujarat. A project of this enormity that combines art, architecture and engineering needed years of planning. In 2011, the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Rashtriya Ekta Trust was set up to bring the vision to life and to find the right people to build it. But first, they had to find that right site to host the statue.

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Today Gujarat has a 182 electoral constituencies, the statue's height of a 182 meters represents this number. By 2015, the plan was at place at 182 meters, its as high as a 61 storey building. Under the statue's bronze facade would be a building, its base below the statue's feet would house the entrance, museum and the elevators.

 

The viewing gallery planned at a 135 meters would provide a bird's-eye view of the Sardar Sarovar Dam and adjoining hills. 

An ambitious plan and just 42 months to get it all done. Indian construction giant Larsen and Toubro had won the bid to build the structure to a global tender. Now unprecedented challenges lay ahead and the clock was ticking away. And it went beyond engineering. This would be a monumental work of art. National award winning sculptor, Ram vanji Sutar was brought in to sculpt the statue.

The project deadline, October 31st 2018, the 143rd birth anniversary of Sardar Patel. It'll take roughly 12 months to prepare the ground and lay the foundation. Another 11-15 months to build the crucial central column of the structure. The last 9-12 months would be spent perfecting and piecing together the bronze facade. It was a gigantic task, it had never been done before. Experts began with a detailed geological survey of the island.

To assess if the bedrock could bear the weight of the 78,900 metric tonne structure.

December 2015- 33 months to delivery, work has begun on leveling the island to lay the foundation.

   

1,500 workers, labor day and night for almost a week to lay the 4488 cubic metre foundation. That's bigger and deeper than an Olympic sized swimming pool. A specialized self compacting concrete slurry was used that set faster than a regular cement mix. One crucial stage was over but this was the only the beginning of the build and the deadline was unshakable. It would take 18,500 metric tonnes of reinforced steel to make it. In keeping with the idea of unity, a campaign was started. Iron would be collected from farmers across the country, a symbolic contribution to national integration. Nearly a 135 metric tonnes of farm implements were collected from 1,69,078 villages across India. These implements were melted and turned into refined steel bars to reinforce the the concrete.

Far away from the site in his studio on the outskirts of Delhi, Ram vanji Sutar was busy sculpting the details of Sardar Patel's image. The 92 year old award-winning artist is renowned for his statues of national leaders. Sutar ji spent days pouring over Sardar Patel's photographs to get the face, expression and the posture right. Padma Bhushan awardee Ram Sutar spent nearly a year making three models of the figure each one bigger and more detailed than the other, the smallest three feet high, the tallest 30 ft tall.

Back at the site, the engineering team was taken aback by Sutar's design. In the post selected, Sardar Patel was striding forward with his feet nearly 12 ft apart. This created a big structural challenge. Very tall statues usually have a skirt or robe that artistically conceals a wide base. This provides structural stability but this was not an option in Ram Sutar's design. The construction company found an engineering solution, instead of one broad base two separate columns forming the legs of the statue would support the structure. 

October 2016- 24 months to delivery, work on the crucial central core begins. To support the height and weight of the structure, the core had to be made entirely out of reinforced concrete cement. With walls over 5 feet thick, it needed to be strong enough to withstand wind speeds of over a 180 km/h and survive strong earthquakes as the statue is in seismic zone 3, the moderate damage risk zone. To provide crucial stability a special feature known as steel mass dampers needed to be built into the structure. These restrict oscillation and minimize the effect of wind storms and earthquakes.

Meanwhile a 30 foot high bronze replica of the statue of unity was installed in Gandhinagar to get a sense of what people thought of the design and Ram Sutar's rendition. 

With popular opinion on their side, Ram Sutar and the team finalized the look and design of the statue. The next stage to cast the bronze facade which would in case reinforced concrete and steel structure. This bronze facade or skin would give the structure its final statuesque form. Bronze is an alloy of copper, tin and zinc. Its a highly durable metal. Bronze casting is a complex process and needs to be done in a foundry but given the size of the statue was there a foundry large enough for the task? For this, they explored all the 1,100 foundries in India but with due regard, the required quality requirement, the time frame and the volume was quite impossible to get in India. So next up boundaries were explored and went to China. 

The Chinese sent a specialist team to Ram Sutar's studio. The 30 foot statue was measured and scanned digitally. 3D cameras captured details of Sardar Patel's face and every fold of his clothing. Next up South East China. Jiangxi China- the Jiangxi tong ching metal handicrafts company is a world leader in art casting. The scaled up bronze facade of the statue of unity was casted here. Scanned images of Ram Suthar's creation were proportionately enlarged and the full-scale version caste piece by piece. Artists Ram Sutar was there to examine and refine every detail. 

December 2017- The bronze exterior of the colossal statue had to be casted in 6,659 separate panels. Once made, these needed to be pieced together like a giant jigsaw puzzle on final installation in Gujarat. Ten months to delivery, the bronze yard of the construction company L&T is teeming with activity. Special low berth trailers carry the enormous bronze panels. The first a 12 ton panel of Sardar Patel's dhoti is winched up and welded into place. Piece by piece, the statue takes final form much as the Union of India did in years after 1945. 

21st October 2018- ten days to delivery its precise painstaking work. 4.000 people worked day and night. Specialists, engineers, crane operators, welders, workers from all over the country come together to bring towering symbol of India's unity to life. 

31st October 2018- a 143rd birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, on the tiny island of Sadhu Bet in Gujarat history is about to be made.

A 21st century colossus, cast in bronze, a symbol of national unity, a modern marvel that honors the man who was instrumental in forging the Union Of India. Its a proud day for everyone who brought the dream to life. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the statue of unity. 5 years of labor, 5 years of design process, 5 years of incessant work actually borne fruits and was a success so you feel yes you've done it.

What we've earned is not something light, its something extraordinary that should be celebrated, that should be cherished, that should be defended, that we should be grateful for. Over time the statue of unity with age and morph but the idea of India will remain resolute and unshakable. Its also a one-of-a-kind addition to Incredible India. Some are here to see a record-setting modern wonder, others to experience a fusion of art and engineering like no other. A museum at the ground level, elevators that take visitors to a viewing gallery at a 135 meters and spectacular light and sound shows that tell the story of Sardar Patel, his life and times. Thousand of Indians working together for a common purpose accomplished that near impossible. The statue of unity is a monument to scientific advancements and artistic expression. A 21st century icon of a modern India and an old to its history as a nation.

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