Statue of Unity is symbol of national pride and a tribute to India’s engineering skills: L&T CEO

The Statue of Unity is symbol of national pride and a tribute to India’s engineering skills and project management abilities, CEO and MD of infrastructure giant L&T, SN Subrahmanyan said.

The construction work of statue started on December 19, 2015 and completed in a record time of 33 months. It took 1,80,000 cu m cement concrete, 18,500 tons of reinforced steel, 6,500 tons of structure steel, 1700 tons of bronze and 1850 tons of bronze cladding to build the statue.

The statue is designed to withstand the wind speed of 180 km per hour and built at a cost of Rs. 2989 crores. It was the dream project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that he flagged off on December 15, 2013 when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat. The Statue of Unity will be inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi on October 31.

L&T CEO and MD Subrahmanyan said in an interview to PTI, “The Statue of Unity, apart from being a symbol of national pride, and integration is also a tribute to India’s engineering skills and project management abilities”.

He said, “Our engineering and construction teams along with the architects, the sculptor, and reputed global consultants, have realized this dream of Prime Minister to reality in a record period of time. Our commitment to scale, speed and quality in engineering has yielded this desired outcome, which is not only structurally superior but also aesthetically appealing”.

L&T said, “The statue structure was to be designed for 180 km per hour wind speed. And if you have seen all the huge statues in the world they have a wide base on which they stand. In case of this statue, the standing leader’s two legs were to be shown separate, which resulted in a narrow base for the structure. This was the biggest challenge, as one has to make the structure withstand the high wind speed at the same time, it should meet the sculptors’ aesthetic requirements”.

It said, “We evolved the design of the statue by using various techniques. We collected around 2,000 photographs from archives and zeroed in on one photograph, after consulting multiple stakeholders like historians and people who had seen Sardar. We used technology to convert the 2-dimensional photograph into a 3-dimensional model”.

Saurabh Chopra

With a blend of vivid areas of interest, Saurabh is a passionate reader and a news writer. He is always enthusiastic and proactive in finding the latest in his fields of interest. Saurabh is also a keen observer in the economic and business pits and falls.

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