SARDAR SAROVAR DAM, India: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday unveiled the 182-metre high "Statue of Unity" in honour of country's first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and dedicated it to the nation.
Built on Sadhu Bet Island on Narmada river, the imposing statue is touted as the world's tallest. The Rs2,989-crore (about Dh1.47 billion, or $402 million) monument is a tribute to Patel, who played a major role in integrating the princely states into the Indian Union after the partition of 1947.
■ The Statue of Unity is 182 metres tall
■ The giant statue is made up of 1,700 tonnes of bronze and 1,850 tonnes of bronze cladding on the exterior. The interior is filled with concrete cement (180,000 cubic metres), reinforced steel (18,500 tonnes) and structured steel (6,500 tonnes)
■ The viewing gallery which can accommodate 200 visitors at a time is at the chest height of the statue. Two passenger elevators ferry visitors up and down.
■ The statue is designed to withstand winds of almost 180km/hour and earthquakes measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale.
■ The state government of Gujarat is building a 3.5km long highway for tourists to reach the statue from Kevadia town.
■ It is almost 29 metres taller than China's Spring Temple Buddha that stands at 153 metres, and almost twice as high as the 93-metre Statue of Liberty in New York.
Three Indian Air Force planes flew past the Patel figure and created the tricolour in the sky after Modi inaugurated the giant.
The Gujarat government expects the statue to boost tourism, with one estimate putting the daily numbers at 15,000.
Valley of Flowers, Tent City, Viewing Gallery
Apart from the Patel bronze figure, other major attractions include inauguration of a 17-km-long Valley of flowers, a Tent City for tourists near the statue and a museum dedicated to the life and times of Patel.
The Tent City, located around four km from the Statue of Unity can house more than 500 tourists in one go.
A viewing gallery at a height of 153 metres has been created inside the statue to enable tourists to have a view of 1,210 metre long concrete Sardar Sarovar Dam, 3.2 km upstream as well as the nearby Satpura and Vindhya mountain ranges.
#WATCH: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's #StatueOfUnity inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gujarat's Kevadiya pic.twitter.com/APnxyFACFT
— ANI (@ANI) October 31, 2018
As per a government statement, the statue has been built using over 70,000 tonnes of cement, 18,500 tonnes of reinforced steel, 6,000 tonnes of structural steel and 1,700 tonnes of bronze, which was used for the outer cladding of the structure.
Modi was accompanied by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.
Protest
Thousands of police guarded the world's biggest statue ahead of its inauguration by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday with local people threatening protests over the enormous figure.
Activists said about a dozen of their leaders had been detained ahead of the spectacular opening of the 182-metre (600-foot) tall tribute to Indian independence hero Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, with air force jets and helicopters to shower flowers on the statue during a flypast.
Anand Mazgaonkar, a community group leader in Narmada district of Gujarat state where the statue has been built over the past four years, said plain clothes police took away 12 people late Tuesday to the local police headquarters.
Detentions denied
Police denied they had made any detentions.
But authorities are taking no chances in case community groups stage protests to demand compensation for land taken to erect the Statue of Unity, which cost 29.9 billion rupees ($400 million).
"More than 5,000 police personnel have been deployed at various points in the 10 kilometre radius of the statue site," said Narmada police inspector general Abhay Chudasama.
"Police patrolling has been intensified in the wake of protests by the local tribal community and leaders. Drones and helicopters will be keeping watch on the entire area," he told reporters.
Posters of Modi with Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani were torn down or had their faces blackened at the weekend.
The chiefs of 22 villages around the statue signed an open letter calling on Modi to stay away from the inauguration. Police guards kept watch on posters put in place of the torn ones.
Nationalist giant
Local legislator and community group leader Chotu Vasava reaffirmed a threat to stage protests on the eve of the ceremonies around the statue of Sardar Patel, who played a key role in unifying India after its independence in 1947.
"Tribals have been exploited by different governments, the ruling BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) is repeating it again," Vasava said, vowing to continue protests.
"I am not against Sardar, but what is the use of the statue if the people on the land have to suffer and are moved from their homes?"
More than 80 percent of the local population are from tribal groups with special protected status.
The Gujarat government said the 185 families moved to make way for the statue had been compensated and given 1,200 acres (475 hectares) of new land.
Modi, whose nationalist government has made the statue one of its flagship projects ahead of a national election next year, arrived in Gujarat's main city of Ahmedabad on Tuesday night.
He is to pay tribute at the foot of the statue of Sardar Patel, who has become a hero for nationalists.
Gujarat government chief secretary J.N. Singh said that dance troupes from across India would perform at the inauguration.
"Air force planes and helicopters will shower flowers on the statue during the unveiling," he told reporters.
The statue is more than twice the size of New York's Statue of Liberty and also dwarfs the 128 metre (400 feet) high Spring Temple Buddha in China, the world's next-biggest statue. It is made up of nearly 100,000 tonnes of concrete and steel.
Tickets
Online booking to visit the Statue of Unity has opened with a 350 rupee ($4.75) admission fee for the 153-metre-high observation deck.
Indian authorities hope the statue will attract 15,000 visitors a day to the remote corner of Gujarat, which is about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the nearest city of Vadodora.
India is also working on a giant statue of 17th-century warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji, riding a horse and brandishing a sword, which should dominate the Mumbai shoreline from 2021. The current design would make it 212 metres high.
