World's tallest statue of 182 m unveiled!

The Statue of Unity, at 182 m, was recently inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gujarat. Twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty in New York, the Statue of Unity is dedicated to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who integrated 565 princely states into one nation. Completed in a record 33 months at an estimated Rs 30 billion, L&T is the EPC contractor, and Turner, the project management consultant. The statue is divided into three main components: The statue, statue base housing the exhibition hall, and the area around the statue base with a fire lane and emergency exit. Including the statue site, the memorial and visitor's centre and Shresta Bharat Bhavan (an administrative complex and a hotel) are spread across 20,000 sq m. At the chest level at 135 m (443 ft), the viewing gallery can accommodate up to 200 visitors. The structure has two vertical cores, each housing a high-speed passenger elevator and emergency exit. The vertical cores support the steel frames to which about 6,500 bronze panels are clad. Connected by a 277-km-long bridge, 210,000 cu m of concrete, 70,000 MT of cement and 18,500 MT of reinforced steel has been used; 6,500 MT structural steel forms the support structure, while 1,700 MT bronze panels (6,500 nos) forms the outermost layer.

The statue has been reportedly engineered to withstand wind speeds of up to 50 mps and can survive earthquake measuring up to 6.5 on the Richter scale, at a depth of 10 km and within a radius of 12 km. A hydrolic study had been conducted so that the statue could stand above the highest flood level recorded over a 100-year period. LIDAR survey and drone photography has been used for monitoring the site of the project. While the statue orientation has been undertaken through shadow analysis, satellite imagery for construction topographic model of all its site for wind tunnel testing has been used. Besides, other digital initiatives such as panelisation, virtual reality for visualisation and review, smart drawings, material tracking, and BMS on safety and BMS on operations have also been used.