• Height: 182 metres. This makes the statue almost twice the height of the iconic Statue of Liberty in New York.
  • Location: Around 3.5 km downstream from the Sardar Sarovar Dam, on islet Sadhu Bet on the bed of the river Narmada.
  • Cost: ₹2,989 crore (approx)
  • Sculptor: Padma Bhushan Ram V. Suthar, a 93-year-old acclaimed sculptor who graduated from the prestigious J.J School of Art in Bombay. He has sculpted masterpieces including that of Mother Chambal at Gandhi Sagar Dam in Madhya Pradesh, equestrian statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Amritsar, and numerous statues of Mahatma Gandhi.
  • Construction period: 34 months. Work began on December 19, 2015.
  • Materials consumed: 70,000 tonnes of cement, 18,500 tonnes of reinforcement steel, 6,000 tonnes of structural steel and 1,700 metric tonnes of bronze, which was used for the outer cladding of the structure, according to a government statement.
  • Specialities: The statue is slender most at the base, which goes against the norms of what other tall statues have followed. The walking pose also opened up a gap of 6.4 metres between the two feet which then had to be tested to withstand wind velocity, says L&T.
  • Engineered to withstand wind speeds of up to 50 m per second (almost 180 km per hour wind speed)
  • Other challenges included doing justice to a legend’s statue, as opposed to that of an imaginary figure. “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,” L&T said.
  • The statue is divided into five zones - Up to its shin is the first zone, comprising three levels, including an exhibit floor, mezzanine and roof. This zone will contain a Memorial Garden and a large museum. Zone 2 extends up to the statue’s thighs at 149 metres, while Zone 3 goes up to the viewing gallery at 153 metres. Zone 4 comprises the maintenance area and Zone 5 the head and shoulders.
  • The viewing gallery at the height of 135 metres can accommodate up to 200 people at a time.