India celebrated the success after the world’s tallest statue, ‘Statue of Unity’ was unveiled by the PM Narendra Modi, as a tribute to icon Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on his 143rd birth anniversary. While we praised the Indian Prime Minister, we forgot to applaud the men who really made it happen.
Yes, we are talking about the ones who designed and built the statue deftly so much so that it was possible for PM Modi to inaugurate Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s Statue of Unity. We must give credit where it’s due. The 93-year-old sculptor, Ran Vanji Sutar is one of the men who played a significant role behind the world’s tallest statue.
Ran Vanji Sutar is an extremely talented person and much to his standards, he is credited with making over 8,000 sculptures in addition to the 600-ft Statue of Unity. His previous tallest creation that drew attention was 45-ft ‘Goddess Chambal’ statue made out of single stone in the year 1959.
Ran Vanji Sutar was honoured with Padma Bhushan for his outstanding works. He is currently designing a 400-ft Shivaji statue followed by a 250-ft Ambedkar statue, both to be installed in Mumbai once it’s completed.
One more man who played a big part in this huge project was Joseph Menna. He is a well-trained American sculptor who is known for the knack of digital sculptors, work on toys and action figures. He was hired to formulate a digital proof of concept model of the project.
It has been built by Larsen and Toubro and the state-run Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd. It took about 250 engineers and 3,400 labourers to completely construct the statue in 33 months.
The epic bronze sculpture is the world’s tallest statue measuring 600 feet (182m) outsmarting China’s Spring Temple Buddha (153m) and USA’s Statue of Liberty (93m). The memorial was designed and built in 33 months at a whopping cost of Rs.2,989 crore.
The state CM said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had gathered iron, soil and water from across the nation to effectively use those ingredients in a bid to build the statue in Gujarat, it was an important decision announced by PM Modi in 2013 when he was the at the helm of Gujarat as the chief minister.
Vijay Rupani said the tallest statue will emphasize Sardar Patel’s significant contributions to the nation’s unity. When the Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that his government would build the world’s tallest statue in a bid to pay a huge tribute to Sardar Patel, opposition parties described it as “empty talk” but a change is evident and the project has now been installed with world-class facilities, he said.
He went on to add that the Congress had sidelined Sardar Patel’s works but it was PM Modi who brought him and his works in front of the world. Sardar Patel who was a Congress leader has become an iconic figure for the Bharatiya Janata Party.