The Statue of Unity, Kevadiya
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
A brief introduction
A comparison with the top 5 tallest statues in the world;
Some detail about the construction material used;
And the map showing the location of Sadhu Beyt: Statue Of Unity;
From: November 1, 2018: The Hindu
See graphic:
Some facts about the Sadhu Beyt- Statue Of Unity;
A comparison with the top 5 tallest statues in the world;
Some detail about the construction material used;
And the map showing the location of Sadhu Beyt: Statue Of Unity;
Essential facts
From: October 31, 2018: The Times of India
See graphic:
Statue Of Unity- the essential facts- II
2010-18: a history of the project
Kapil Dave, STATUE OF UNITY A GLOBAL LANDMARK, October 29, 2018: The Times of India
From: Kapil Dave, STATUE OF UNITY A GLOBAL LANDMARK, October 29, 2018: The Times of India
From: Kapil Dave, STATUE OF UNITY A GLOBAL LANDMARK, October 29, 2018: The Times of India
From: Kapil Dave, STATUE OF UNITY A GLOBAL LANDMARK, October 29, 2018: The Times of India
The Spectacular Memorial To India’s Iron Man Sardar Patel Is Twice The Height Of Statue Of Liberty In New York
The Time magazine in 1947 called him ‘The Boss’ who unified over 562 disparate princely states. Many had hailed him as India’s Bismarck. The visage of the country’s first deputy PM, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who was fondly called the ‘Iron man of India,’ now stands clad in bronze in the shape of the world’s tallest statue (182 metres, twice the height of the Statue of Liberty) built at a project cost of Rs 2,979 crore on Sadhu Beyt.
The breathtaking Statue Of Unity is set against the glistening basalt rocks of the Vindhya and Satpura hills of the Shoolpaneshwar Wildlife Sanctuary. The statue, befitting Sardar’s stature, is set to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 31, Sardar’s birth anniversary, with BJP setting the ball rolling for its 2019 Lok Sabha poll campaigns.
In 2010, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was the chief minister of Gujarat he had revealed his plans for building the Statue of Unity. Modi had said then, “It is a tribute to the great man who united India. The state government and my party (BJP) have decided to build the world’s tallest statue dedicated to Sardar Patel.”
BJP’s massive campaign went on to associate Modi with Sardar’s political style, and his emphasis on ‘good governance’. Right from the Gaurav Yatra days of 2002, Modi would often be referred to as ‘Chhote Sardar’.
Initially, the Statue of Unity was planned to mark Modi’s decade-long stint as Gujarat chief minister in the run-up to the 2012 state elections. But soon, Sardar’s statue extrapolated to becoming the uniting point for BJP’s 2014 Lok Sabha poll campaigning, when large rallies and marathons like the ‘Run for Unity’ were organized by the BJP.
The Statue of Unity is ambitious both in its scale and its design. The soaring structure will be complemented by an integrated complex housing a hotel, a memorial garden and a visitor centre, 3.5km away from the Sardar Sarovar Dam. It required complicated engineering, and a composite reinforcement to support the huge structure on a rocky outcrop in the middle of the Narmada river bed.
The project website says that nearly 3 lakh soil samples were collected, along with 700 tonnes of iron in the form of donated farm equipment from across the country. And now the Statue of Unity’s completion will serve as the bugle for the BJP machinery to mobilize the masses with the message of national unity, and prime them for 2019.
Political science expert Dinesh Shukla says, “Modi used the Statue of Unity to rally support for his 2014 Lok Sabha campaign, and on the project’s completion, he will try to use it to mobilize masses for 2019.” He adds, “The statue may help the BJP to an extent when it comes to Lok Sabha seats of Gujarat.’’
BUILT WITH PEOPLE IN MIND
The primary approach bridge is 306 metres long. There are eight travellators. At the base there is a cafeteria with capacity of 264, a gift shop, parking for 800 vehicles. The premises have capacity of 15,000 visitors per day. The Shreshtha Bharat Bhavan, a three-star facility, has 52 rooms, swimming pool and other amenities.
An engineering marvel
October 29, 2018: The Times of India
The making of the Statue of Unity did not come easy. Initially, the Gujarat government through a US consultant hired Joseph Menna, an American 3D sculptor in Philadelphia for the statue’s first digital model. Menna was known for making cartoon models for DC Comics (collectables) McFarlane Toys, and Mattel. “Menna’s digital proof was adapted from Padma Bhushan sculptor Ram V Sutar’s Sardar statue installed at Ahmedabad airport in 2011, and so the state government chose Sutar for the project,” said a senior Narmada Water Resources department official. Sutar’s works include the ‘Gandhi in Meditation’ statue in the Parliament complex.
In June 2011, after inviting a global expression interest, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) was chosen for the project. At the time, the company had committed to finishing the project in 42 months at a project cost of Rs 2,979 crore.
American giant Turner Construction, which built the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, was a consultant.
The project’s architect is Michael Graves, designer of the 1985 Team Disney Building in Burbank, US and skyscrapers, while SoU’s engineering consultant is the Meinhardt Group, who are involved in building the proposed “Aladdin City,” Dubai. The brass claddings were manufactured at China’s Jiangxi Tongqing Metal Handicrafts.
Funding
The facts
Social media is abuzz with claims that PSUs spent over Rs 2,525 crore for the construction of the Statue of Unity.
To find out the details of the contribution made by the PSUs, India Today Fact Check team went through the annual reports of various PSUs and the budget papers.
The Sardar Patel statue project was first announced on October 7, 2010, by the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. But it wasn't until 2013, when a Special Purpose Vehicle, the Sardar Vallabhai Patel Rashtriya Ekta Trust was formed that it gathered pace.
After Modi became the prime minister in 2014, the project gathered momentum. The central government in its 2014-15 Budget allocated a sum of Rs 200 crore to the Gujarat government for this purpose.
Since then, the Gujarat government has been making a provision for funds for the statue in the state budget.
Following are the figures showing the state’s contribution for the project.
| YEAR | BUDGETARY PROVISION |
| Rs 899 crore | |
| Rs 1066 crore* | |
| Rs 915 crore | |
| Rs 100 crore |
- Provision included funds for establishing Tribal Research & Training Institute
In the meantime, several PSUs also started contributing funds for the statue which did not go down well with the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG). The CAG in its Compliance Audit on General Purpose Financial Reports 2018 of Central Public Sector Enterprises of Union Government rapped the PSU firms for spending CSR funds on the construction of the statue. The CAG report stated that a total of Rs 146.83 crore was spent by five PSU firms namely ONGC, IOCL, BPCL, HPCL and OIL.
Here's the individual amount donated by the public sector oil companies over the years as per the CAG report.
| PUBLIC SECTOR UNDERTAKING | AMOUNT GIVEN UNDER CSR |
| Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited | Rs 50 crore |
| Indian Oil Corporation Limited | Rs 21.83 crore |
| Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited | Rs 25 crore |
| Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited | Rs 25 crore |
| Oil India Limited | Rs 25 crore |
Since, the claims made on the basis of Loksatta article do not mention any time frame for the CSR funding for the project, it was difficult to verify the years they were referring to. However, we decided to look into the annual reports of these PSUs since 2015, the year the construction work for the statue gained momentum.
According to the claims, the Indian Oil Corp gave Rs 900 crore for the statue. However, the annual reports of IOCL say it actually gave Rs 21.83 crore in the year 2016-17 and a cumulative expenditure of Rs 71.34 crore is also mentioned in the 2017-18 annual report.
For ONGC, the claim made was for Rs 500 crore. But according to the annual report, it has spent only Rs 50 crore from its CSR fund for the project.
In the viral post, it is claimed that all the three companies -- BPCL, OIC and GAIL -- have spent Rs 250 crore each for the statue. India Today found that BPCL spent Rs 45 crore, OIC Rs 25 crore and GAIL Rs 25 crore. Power Grid has contributed Rs 12.5 crore against a claim of Rs 125 crore made in the post.
The Loksatta article mentioned that the HPCL has given Rs 250 crore but we found that as per annual report of 2016-17, it gave Rs 25 crore.
The claims stated that Gujarat Minerals Corporation Limited (GMCL) had given Rs 100 crore for the project whereas India Today found from the annual report that the company gave only Rs 11 crore.
The post claims that the two companies, Petronet and Balmer Lawrie, have given Rs 50 crore each for the statue project, but we found that Petronet gave Rs 5 crore while Balmer Lawrie gave money twice -- Rs 62 lakh in 2017-18 and Rs 38 lakh in 2016-17.
We couldn't find any mention of funds for the statue in the financial statements of Engineers India Limited.
India Today contacted Sandeep Kumar, joint managing director at the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited (SSNNL), for further clarification on the project funding. The SSNNL has been tasked with overseeing the implementation of the Statue of Unity project. According to Kumar, the project cost was Rs 2,362 crore, and an additional Rs 650 crore has been kept for the maintenance of the project for the next 15 years. The project cost includes setting up of a memorial, a 50-room hotel, and infrastructure surrounding the area.
Kumar claimed that "the central government had given Rs 300 crore for the project while Rs 550 crore was given by the central and state PSUs, private companies and individuals as donations".
"Rest of the expenditure has been borne by the Gujarat government," he added.
India Today Fact Check team found that the claims, which said the PSUs bore the cost of Sardar Patel statue project, are partially true. The PSUs certainly did not spend to the tune Rs 2,500 crore as being claimed. Also, the claims about funds coming from China as loan are far from true.
Update: One of our esteemed readers pointed out rightly that IOCL had also given money for the statue second time, in the year 2017-18. We have now included that in our story and updated it. The reader has also mentioned that some of "these companies might have also spent some amounts in 2018-19" but since the annual reports for the year 2018-19 are still not available, India Today could not take that into account in the current story.
Statue of Unity funding
ClaimIndian Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) were made to shell out nearly Rs 2,500 crore as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) fund for the construction of Sardar Patel statue. Loan of Rs 3600 crore was taken to fund the statue.ConclusionPSUs did bear the cost of Sardar Patel statue project, but did not spend to the tune Rs 2,500 crore as being claimed. Also, the claims about funds coming from China as loan are far from true.
Tribals’ fears
2019
Dec 24, 2019 The Times of India
Tribals of villages close to the Statue of Unity in Narmada district of Gujarat on Monday demanded the withdrawal of a bill that envisages setting up of an authority for planned development around the imposing structure, a major tourist attraction.
They fear that once the Statue of Unity Area Development and Tourism Governance Bill comes into force, authorities will take away their land in the name of development. The Bill was passed by the state assembly recently.
The tribals also took out a march against the state’s plan. The Bill proposes an SOU Tourism Authority which will have powers to ensure planned development of the area in and around Kevadiya, where the 182-metre statue dedicated to Sardar Patel stands. The new body is empowered to declare the area a tourism development zone to facilitate visitors coming from all over India and abroad.
The protesters said the proposed authority will give immense power to officials to take away their land in the name of development. PTI
Visitors
2018-19: 15,000 visitors a day
In just over a year of its unveiling, the Statue of Unity has surpassed the footfall at the 133-year-old Statue of Liberty in the US, with an average of over 15,000 tourists visiting the monument in Gujarat daily.
“With 74% increase over the daily average of the first year, that is, November 1, 2018, to October 31, 2019, daily average of 15,036 is now registered in the first month of this second year. This has further increased to 22,430 on the weekend. The Statue of Liberty of New York, US, attracts around 10,000 visitors a day,” a statement by Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd said.
The statue of Vallabhbhai Patel stands at 182 metres and is the world’s tallest statue.
Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam credited the rise in footfall to the addition of attractions like jungle safari, children’s nutrition park, cactus garden, butterfly garden, ekta nursery, dino trail, rafting, boating, alongside multiple budget accommodation options.
