New Delhi: A swarm of drones, showcasing the life and legacy of freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose, lit up the sky over India Gate complex in New Delhi on Friday. The drone show was conducted also to celebrate the newly-unveiled grand statue of Netaji, news agency PTI reported.
As per report, the drones took to air in phases and made eight different formations.
"A total of 250 drones will be used, and the last formation will be of the new grand statue unveiled by the Prime Minister on Thursday. The drone show will depict the life and legacy of Netaji," PTI quoted a senior official of Culture Ministry as saying, shortly before the show started.
"The Netaji drone show was done by the same team of innovators which had run the 1,000-drone show at the Beating the Retreat ceremony early this year, over the Vijay Chowk," the official added.
It is to be noted that the drone show started around 8.35 pm and lasted for 10 minutes, while people tried to capture the image on their mobile phone cameras, some trying to move around while many lay on the lawns to enjoy it.
Earlier, as dusk fell over the skyline of Central Vista, a group of engineers and technicians were busy hooking up the connection in a grid of drones that was assembled in a lawn near the India Gate.
Notably, the 28-ft-tall statue of Netaji was carved out of a monolith block of jet-black granite stone, that was brought from a quarry in Telangana and a "makeshift road" had to be built to move it to a highway for transporting it to the national capital.
A team of sculptors spent 26,000-man hours of "intense artistic endeavour" to carve the grand statue of Netaji, according to the Ministry of Culture.