Over the weekend, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew down to Mumbai to lay the foundation stone for a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji. The memorial of the 16th century ruler of the Maratha empire is estimated to cost $530 million. The statue, which is to be built in the Arabian Sea off Mumbai coast, will be 192-metres tall — the tallest memorial in the world, said Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis last week.
In comparison, Statue of Liberty is 93 metres tall. The current tallest statue in the world, the Laykyun Setkyar of Buddha, is in Myanmar. It’s 115.8 metres tall. The other two tallest statues are also dedicated to Buddha. The Spring Temple Buddha in China is 108.45 metres tall, whereas the Ushiku Daibutsu in Japan is 100 metres tall.
India is also working on Statue of Unity in remembrance of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the country’s first Deputy Prime Minister. The monument is under construction in Narmada Dam, Gujarat. It will be 182 metres in height. The government is spending $438 million on the four-year project, which is expected to complete by the end of 2018. The project to build the statue comes ahead of the high-stake elections in Maharashtra in February 2017.
