Statue of Unity: World’s Tallest Statue Monument Unveiled by PM Modi

Statue of Unity: On the 143rd Birth Aniversary of Sardar Vallabhai Patel, India unveiled the world’s tallest statue monument to the world. Honouring the immense hard work and toil of Sardar Vallabhai Patel for uniting all the princely states of India to form a balkanization-less country. Whether it is the growth of Patel as a leader in Gujarat or his part in the kicking the British out of India, Sardar Vallabhai Patel had the compassion to overcome the hurdles. He had the spark needed to make a just-born country to become fully integrated with law and order. His stern efforts and adamant will to accomplish the necessary plans to make a great independent India gave him the apt sobriquet “The Iron Man of India”.

Statue of Unity: What and Hows?

Today (Wednesday 31,2018), Prime Minister Narendra Modi showed the greatness of hard work and architectural innovation as he presented the Statue of Unity to the world. At a height (182 meters)  twice as Statue of Liberty, this Statue Monument of Sardar Vallabhai Patel is now regarded as World’s Tallest Statue Monument. Initially, the plans were to carve out the statue from a rock mountain, but as the plan developed the current one was finalised. At a cost of Rs. 2,989 crore, the monument had more than 250 engineers and 3400 labourers to finish the monument in a span of just 33 months.

What are the attractions in the Statue of Unity?

The Statue of Unity has two different viewpoints which give amazing views of the surrounding natural elements of Gujarat. From the topmost viewpoint at 193 meters from sea level, the visitors can enjoy the views of Sardar Sarovar Dam, the reservoir and the surrounding nature. There is a gallery located at 153 meters which also offers some great views of the dam, and Satpura and Vindhya Mountain Rangers.

Even though the monument has placed India at limelight for creating the world’s tallest statue monument, there is no answer to the question whether is it really needed at this time? When there is a stringent need to allocate funds for very important aspects such as Women Safety, agriculture, and education, a whopping 3000 Crore Rupees for a monument seems to be superfluous. The building process has many other issues like oppositions from environmental activists because of the project implementation without Environmental Clearance certificate. The local tribal people also opposed the project because of the acquisition of their land for the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Project consisting of Statue of Unity and many other tourism activities in the area.

While the Internet Celebrates the World’s Tallest Statue Monument, the Local Tribals says, they won’t cook food for the day and will mourn the day. They also added that they are very honoured and proud of the greatest son of Gujarat but it is the Government’s ideas and plans that are being opposed.

Image Credits & courtesy: ThePrint, Hindustan Times, The Indian Express.