‘Statue of Unity’ wishes Sardar Patel on his ’67th’ birthday in a faux pas

Incidentally, this is the first tweet posted by the official handle since December 15, 2016, which is Sardar Patel’s death anniversary. In its December tweet, the handle correctly pays tribute to Patel on his 66th death anniversary, saying, “Remembering the #IronManOfIndia, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, on his 66th Punya Tithi. ”

Remembering an Architect of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on his 67th birthday pic.twitter.com/SP66f2MWkU

— Statue Of Unity (@souindia) October 31, 2017

When contacted, an official from Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL) called Tuesday’s incident a “typographical error” and said the tweet would be rectified soon.

Currently, about 2,400 workers are involved in the construction of the 182-metre tall statue, which is touted to be the world’s tallest. The Statue of Unity, Modi’s dream project, is coming up at Sadhu Bet – about 3 kilometres from the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Dam. So far, about 104 meters of the statue has been erected (the waist portion), which is at 157 meters above the mean sea level (240 metres).

In the off-site workshop of the project, several workers from TQ Art Foundry, which belongs to Jiangxi Tongqing Company based in Nanchang in Eastern China, are assist ing the Larsen and Toubro (L&T) engineers in assembling the bronze cladding of the facade.

SSNNL officials confirmed the bronze cladding had already arrived from China and would soon make its way to the construction site. The workshop has also received an 8 metre-tall prototype of the head of Sardar Patel with detailed facial expressions that will now be replicated to build a 45 metre-tall structure to be fitted on the torso of the statue.