Statue of Unity being made in China, Modi's Make in India pitch takes a hit

October 20, 2015

New Delhi, Oct 20: The 'Statue of Unity' a memorial to Sardar Patel is being smelted and cast in China's Nanchang province. Chinese workers are set to arrive at Sadhu Bet in Narmada district by the end of the year to begin work on one of Prime Minister Modi's pet projects, reports The Indian Express.

The statue as visualised by Modi is touted to be one of the tallest in the world at a height of 182 metres.

This development is being touted as a failure of the Prime Minister's other pet project 'Make in India' by the Congress. The Gujarat government has however claimed that it cannot control how and where the contractor gets material from.

K Srinivas, member-secretary of the Sardar Vallabhai Patel Rashtriya Ekta Trust (SVPRET), was quoted in Times of India saying, "As it's a project of international importance, the company might have opted for a global supplier. Only bronze-plating will be done in China.''

A work order amounting to Rs 2,989 crore was awarded to construction giant Larsen and Toubro with the hope that the statue would be completed in four years by Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel.

A spokesperson for L&T was quoted in Outlook saying, “This is not just a statue; it is a memorial. It cannot just be shipped in from somewhere. It will be constructed at workshops which we will create. The foundry and workshops will be created close by.”

Modi, prior to the general elections last year, had performed the ground breaking ceremony and announced that the iron used for the construction of this statue would be collected from farmers from different parts of the country.

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IndiGo CEO says less than 1,000 cancellations on Dec 6; normalcy by Dec 15

News Network

December 5,2025

New Delhi, Dec 5: IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers issued a public apology this evening after more than a thousand flights were cancelled today, making it the "most severely impacted day" in terms of cancellations. The biggest airline of the country cancelled "more than half" of its daily number of flights on Friday, said Elbers. He also said that even though the crisis will persist on Saturday, the airline anticipates fewer than 1,000 flight cancellations.

"Full normalisation is expected between December 10 and 15, though IndiGo cautions that recovery will take time due to the scale of operations," the IndiGo CEO said.

IndiGo operates around 2,300 domestic and international flights daily.

Pieter Elbers, while apologising for the major inconvenience due to delays and cancellations, said the situation is a result of various causes.

The crisis at IndiGo stems from new regulations that boost pilots' weekly rest requirements by 12 hours to 48 and allow only two night-time landings per week, down from six. IndiGo has attributed the mass cancellations to "misjudgment and planning gaps".

Elbers also listed three lines of action that the airline will adopt to address the issue.

"Firstly, customer communication and addressing your needs, for this, messages have been sent on social media. And just now, a more detailed communication with information, refunds, cancellations and other customer support measures was sent," he said.

The airline has also stepped up its call centre capacity.

"Secondly, due to yesterday's situation, we had customers stranded mostly at the nation's largest airports. Our focus was for all of them to be able to travel today itself, which will be achieved. For this, we also ask customers whose flights are cancelled not to come to the airports as notifications are sent," the CEO said.

"Thirdly, cancellations were made for today to align our crew and planes to be where they need to start tomorrow morning afresh. Earlier measures of the last few days, regrettable, have proven not to be enough, but we have decided today to reboot all our systems and schedules, resulting in the highest numbers of cancellations so far, but imperative for progressive improvements starting from tomorrow," he added.

As airports witnessed chaotic scenes, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stepped in to grant IndiGo a temporary exemption from stricter night duty rules for pilots. It also allowed substitution of leaves with a weekly rest period.

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has said a high-level inquiry will be ordered and accountability will be fixed.

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