Granite for Netaji statue in Delhi came from Telangana quarry; transported on makeshift road

The recently unveiled grand statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was carved out of a monolithic block of granite weighing 280 metric tonnes obtained from a quarry in Telangana. A stretch of "makeshift road" had to be constructed to move the stone from the quarry to a national highway so it could be sent to Delhi.

This enormous stone needed to be transported 1,665 kilometres from Khammam, Telangana, to the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), in New Delhi using a truck that was 100 feet long and had 140 wheels. 

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"Netaji has been brought to life from a single block of a monolithic stone, 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, Granite Studio India told PTI. 

The monumental statue of Bose required 26,000 man-hours of "intense artistic endeavour" from a team of sculptors. On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi both revealed the 28-foot monument that has been put in the historic canopy facing the India Gate and officially opened the newly dubbed Kartavya Path, a section that runs from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate.

The NGMA is where all of the sculpting work was completed. According to a senior official in the Culture Ministry, the unfinished stone block was transported from Khammam in Telangana.

The statue is completely "hand sculpted using traditional techniques and modern tools". Arun Yogiraj led the team of sculptors. 

Mehta said the stone was sourced from a quarry in Khammam in "record time", but sending it to Delhi entailed "multiple challenges". 

The director of New Delhi-based Granite Studio India also showed PTI a sample of the "telephone black granite". The granite monolith was chiselled to produce a statue weighing 65 MT, but bringing it to Delhi was not an easy task. 

"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 allow the stone to be moved to the highway. And, 42 tyres go burst on the way due to which 72 hours were lost. The long truck used for transportation had 14 axles, and it crossed through five states to reach Delhi," Mehta said. 

From NH, the road travelled to Nagpur and, passing through other parts of Maharashtra, it moved to Madhya Pradesh, onwards to Uttar Pradesh and then Faridabad, Haryana, and then reached Delhi at the NGMA, he added. 

"I could hardly sleep for three nights," he exclaimed, adding, the truck started on May 22 night and reached the national capital on June 2.

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

His arrival at the canopy for the unveiling of the statue was heralded with traditional Manipuri Shankh Vadayam and Kerala's traditional Panch Vadayam and Chanda. The unveiling of the statue of Netaji was accompanied by the tune of Kadam Kadam Badhayeja, the traditional INA song.

(With inputs from PTI)

• Netaji
• Subhas Chandra Bose
• Narendra Modi
• New Delhi
• Kartavya Path
• Telangana