Ram Statue vs Shivaji Memorial: Maharashtra won’t let UP get the 'tallest' statue tag

New Delhi, Oct 16: India is in the grip of statue fever right now as plethora of statues are coming up in different cities in our country. After Gujarat's Statue of Unity, all eyes are now on Uttar Pradesh's Ram Statue. Meanwhile, an equestrian statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji in Maharshtra is also on the cards.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had recently said that the tallest statue of Lord Shri Ram would be installed in Ayodhya on a 100-acre site and would be 251 metres. The installation of the bronze statue is expected to cost Rs 2,500 crore.

It should be noted that the Sardar Patel statue in Gujarat was built at 183 metres tall.

However, the Maharashtra government is now planning to increase the height of a proposed Shivaji memorial statue (212 metre) to make it taller than the planned 221-metre Lord Ram statue in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya.

According to a report in Indian Express, Vinayak Mete, Chairman of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Memorial Project Implementation, Monitoring and Co-ordination Committee, said ,"We will demand that the height of the Shivaji statue be increased to 230 meters. We will ensure that the height of the statue is increased."

The proposed memorial is to be built on 6.8 hectares of reclaimed land in the middle of the Arabian sea. Engineering major L&T recently bagged the Rs 2,500-crore contract for the project.

The 251-metre Lord Ram statue is said to be the world's tallest. The Statue of Liberty in New York is 93 metres, Dr BR Ambedkar's statue in Mumbai is 137.2 metres, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's in Gujarat is 183 meters, Gautam Buddha's statue in China is 208 meters and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's statue in Mumbai is 212 meters.