Sayan Chatterje
NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi unveiled the world’s tallest statue – ‘Statue of Unity’ – on Wednesday as a tribute to Sardar Vallabhai Patel. While the imposing structure is a sight to behold from the ground, it is every bit as mesmerizing from the sky.
Three Indian Air Force aircraft flew in victory formation while painting the tri-colour as a salute to the majestic statue which stands at 182 metres, making it the tallest statue in the world for reference, the ‘Statue of Liberty’ in New York stands 46 metres tall.
The sheer aura of the statue of Sardar Patel dominating the landscape near Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat’s Narmada district was not just on ground but from the skies as well. A video was shot from one of the IAF aircraft gives a perspective as well as a bird’s eye view of the engineering marvel that took about three years to be completed.
The formation in the sky was led by the Commanding Officer Wng Cdr NS Pannu streaming the pious White colour of the Tricolour with Sqn Ldr Randhawa as his co-pilot, on his Right was Wng Cdr P Kashyap and Wng Cdr Vivek streaming the patriotic Saffron and completing the formation on their left was Wng Cdr Varad Agarwal streamed the Green colour. The air warriors very proudly fly-by the Statue of Unity as a salutation to the patriotism reflected in the monument of the Iron Man of India.
The valiant air warriors belong to the prestigious Air Defence Flight squadron, from AFS Gorakhpur. Patel, the first Home Minister of Independent India, is credited with merging 500 princely states into the Union of India. He had used force to annex princely states of Junagadh ruled by Nawab and Hyderabad ruled by nizam, both of whom had wished not to merge their states with the India union.
The monument was conceptualized by PM Modi during his tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister and he had laid the foundation stone for it back in 2013.
Comments are closed.