Ahmedabad

The official Facebook page of ‘Statue of Unity’ project has made following clarification in response to the ongoing propaganda over Chinese role in making of the ‘Statue of Unity’: The entire statue itself is being built in India at the site and only the bronze cladding in the form of bronze plates is being sourced from China, which constitutes a negligible amount of less than 9% of the total value of project.

The page has also linked L&T’s clarification in this regard which states, the statue is being built in India and the company is sourcing only bronze plates from China.

“The entire statue itself is being built in India at the site and only the bronze cladding in the form of bronze plates is being sourced from China, which constitutes a negligible amount of less than 9% of the total value of project,” L&T said in an official statement.

According to L&T, the plates are put together and erected on the core of reinforced concrete and structural steel at the Sadhu Hill site after assembly and welding. Thus, the notion of the statue in its entirety being shipped from China is a total misunderstanding, the company said. L&T was awarded the Statue of Unity project by the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Rashtriya Ekta Trust (SVPRET).

The statue, tallest in the world featuring Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel will be installed on Sadhu Bet near Sardar Sarovar dam and has been given the status of ‘National Project’.

Meanwhile the PTI report from China adds:

‘Statue of Unity’ to have China connection
From K J M Varma, Beijing,

The ambitious project of building the world’s tallest statue in Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s honour in Gujarat will have a China connection with a Chinese firm roped in to send some workers and materials for the sculpture.

Refuting reports that thousands of Chinese workers would go to Gujarat to take part in the project, informed sources said the Chinese firm Jiangxi Tong Qing Metal Crafts Sales Limited which is part of the Jiangxi Toquine Metal Handicrafts Company Limited do not have a huge work force to be sent abroad for such a venture.

The company which is based in Nanchang city in China’s Jiangxi province, however, refused to comment on reports that it is contracted to send thousands of workers to Gujarat to build the ‘Statue of Unity’.

Few Chinese workers along with materials were expected to take part in the project on a limited scale as the Chinese company has an experience in building big statues including one of the world’s tallest 88-metre Buddha statue at Wuxi in China, the sources said.

Their participation was a small part of the project as India does not have all the skills and materials to build such a huge statue, they said.

The timeline for Chinese workers’ participation, however, is yet to be decided as the project timeline will be finalised by the main sculptor of the statue which will be built at Sadhu Bet near Vadodara in Gujarat with a mix of bronze and copper, the sources said.

Two officials of the company which PTI contacted over the phone declined to speak saying that they cannot provide any information on the project.

The firm was reportedly engaged by Larsen & Toubro (L&T), which got the contract and sought assistance of the Chinese company to build the statue.

L&T officials in Shanghai have also declined to give out any details about engaging the Chinese firm.

The iconic 182-meter tall statue, dubbed as the ‘Statue of Unity’, is being built at the Sadhu-Bet Island, approximately 3.5 km south of Sardar Sarovar Dam at Kevadia in the Narmada district of Gujarat.