Netaji statue– Makeshift road was built to transport granite block sourced from Telangana

New Delhi: A monolithic block of granite from which the grand statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, which was unveiled at India Gate here on Thursday, was carved was sourced from Telangana and a "makeshift road" had to be built to move it to a highway for transporting it to Delhi.

A 100-ft-long truck with 140 wheels was specially designed to carry the granite block weighing 280 metric tonnes (MT) from Telangana's Khammam to the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) here -- a distance of 1,665 kilometres.

"Netaji has been brought to life from a monolithic block which befits his stature as a towering leader. And we feel proud that we have supplied it for this ambitious project of the government," Rajat Mehta, director of Delhi-based Granite Studio India, told PTI.

The stone was sourced from a quarry in Khammam in "record time", said Mehta, who also showed PTI a sample of the telephone black granite used for making the statue.

The granite monolith was chiselled to produce a statue weighing 65 MT but bringing it to Delhi was not an easy task and entailed several challenges, Mehta said.

"The stretch from the quarry to the national highway was 'kuccha' and a makeshift road had to be built in a short period of time to move the stone to the highway," he said.

As many as 42 tyres of the 100-ft-long truck burst on the way and 72 hours were lost due to this. The truck passed through five states to reach Delhi, he said.

The truck left for Delhi on the night of May 22 and reached the national capital on June 2, Mehta said.

"I could hardly sleep for three nights," he added.

The 28-ft-tall statue, which has been installed at the canopy facing India Gate, was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A team of sculptors spent 26,000 man hours of "intense artistic endeavour" to carve the grand statue of Bose, according to the Ministry of Culture.

The statue was completely hand sculpted at the NGMA using traditional techniques and modern tools. The team of sculptors was led by Arun Yogiraj, a senior official of the Ministry of Culture said.

The prime minister had on January 21 assured that a grand statue of Netaji made of granite will be installed at India Gate as a symbol of the nation's "indebtedness" to him.

As Modi unveiled the statue of Netaji, the tune of 'Kadam Kadam Badhayeja', the traditional song of the Indian National Army (INA), played in the background.

A group of people from Telangana who visited India Gate before the unveiling ceremony said they felt "very happy and proud" that Netaji has been "brought to life" using a granite stone quarried from their home state.

Venkat T from Telangana's Nizamabad area said, "I have come here before but the India Gate complex looks different today. And the fact that Netaji's statue has been made out of a stone from Telengana is a matter of great pride for us".

Venkat's brother-in-law Shrikant K and sister-in-law Swarnlata K, who are visiting Delhi for the first time, said they did not know that the statue has been carved out of a stone from Telangana and it is a pleasant surprise for them.