New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the newly christened Kartavya Path a stretch from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate on Thursday. Modi will also unveil the 28 ft statue of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose at India Gate. The festival at Kartvya Path would commence at 08.45 PM on September 8^th after the main function and it will continue from September 9^th-11^th from 7-9 pm.

           A team of sculptors spent 26,000 man hours of intense artistic endeavour to carve a grand statue of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose. The statue was carved from a monolithic block of granite weighing 280 MT, the Culture Ministry said on Wednesday.

The Cultural Ministry in a press note said that 100 ft long truck with 140 wheels was specially designed for this giant granite stone to travel 1,665 km from Khammam in Telangana to New Delhi. Statue installation work was underway on Wednesday on the eve of its unveiling. It will be housed in the India Gate canopy. The statue is completely hand sculpted using traditional techniques and modern tools. The team of sculptors was led by Arun Yogiraj.

The statue is being installed at the same place where a hologram statue of Netaji was unveiled earlier this year on Parakram Diwas (January 23) by the Prime Minister Modi to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Bose, said in a press note. Statue of Netaji is one of the tallest, realistic, monolithic, handmade sculptures in India. On January 21^st Modi 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.

On Modi’s arrival at the canopy for the unveiling of the statue will be heralded with traditional Manipuri Shankh Vadayam and Kerala’s traditional Panch Vadayam and Chanda. The unveiling of the statue of Netaji would be accompanied to the tune of Kadam Kadam Badhayeja, the traditional INA song, the statement said.

A special 10 minute drone show on Netaji’s life would be projected at India Gate at 8 pm on September 9, 10 and 11. Both the cultural festival and the drone show would be open to the public with free entry, the ministry said. To demonstrate the spirit of Ek Bharat – Shrestha Bharat and unity in diversity a cultural festival by 500 dancers drawn from all parts of the country, would be showcased on the Kartvya Path.

A glimpse of the same would be shown to the Prime Minster on the step amphitheatre near India Gate by around 30 artists, who will perform tribal folk art forms such as Sambalpuri, Panthi, Kalbelia, Kargam and dummy horse with live music from Nashik’s Dhol Pathik Tasha and drums.