Bollywood actress Pooja Batra has posted a beautiful picture on social media in which she is posing beside the humongous statue of the ‘Iron Man of India’, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The actress looks ravishing in a milky white frock while standing in front of ‘Statue of Unity’ in Gujarat, which is the world’s tallest statue.
Hundreds of thousands of tourists are flocking Sadhu Bet, a isle in the Sardar Sarovar dam, which is 100km from Vadodara, to see the colossal monument. People started flowing to the isle even before the huge statue was unveiled in October 2018.
The ‘Statue of Unity’ beats China’s ‘Spring Temple Buddha’ as the tallest statue in the world and this statue with a total height of 182m is almost twice as tall as the iconic ‘Statue of Liberty’, which is 93m high, in New York.
The statue had been designed by noted sculptor Ram V Sutar and it was put on the pedestal by Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited and major construction engineering group Larsen and Toubro.
The statue is a tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who was the key figure behind unification of India after the British left Indian shores in 1947. The foundation stone for the monument was laid by then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on October 31, 2013, and the structure was completed after four years at a cost of Rs 2,989 crore. A whopping 33,000 tonnes of steel were used to build this landmark statue, which has a coat of bronze on the surface.
Apart from the statue, there are visitors’ centre, museum, garden, convention center and laser shows, among others. A 3-star hotel is also ready to welcome you if you are planning for an overnight stay. Presently, ‘Statue of Unity’ is one of the destinations in India that attracts most number of tourists.
