Hurrairah bin Sohail speaks with Rhino Engineers and Modern Stage Service about a lighting installation that aims to fundamentally enhance and prolong the visitor attraction experience for monuments in India.
The Statue of Unity, a 182m tall statue of Indian statesman and independence activist Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, located in the state
of Gujrat, India, has the honour
of being the tallest statue in the
world. But the statue was not
meant to truly be a standalone
monument, it was part of larger
push from the Indian government
to promote tourism and to bring to
light the history of the country
which included the development
of the nearby Kevadia city.
Kevadia city is intended to
serve as a unique visitor attraction
and Narendra Naidu, principal
consultant at Rhino Engineers,
provides further details: “There is a
government initiative to develop
new destinations for visitors and
the dream of the Prime Minister is
to maximise the potential of these
tourist attractions. All parties
felt that the Kevadia city was an
excellent opportunity to explore
how we can take visitor attractions
in India to the next level. It is a
beautiful location surrounded by
dense forests, it is located on the
border of two states and there are
already nearly 30 visitor
attractions nearby which include
the Statue of Unity and the Sardar
Sarovar Dam. These also include
multiple activities like zip-liner,
children nutrition park, mountain
cycling, jungle safari, cactus
garden, butterfly garden, Ekta
nursery, dino trail, river rafting,
boating and arogya van. All the
required elements to make it a
successful tourist attraction were
already present.”
Kartik Wadhwa, director of
Modern Stage Service, details: “The
Statue of Unity was of course a huge
project undertaken by the Indian
government, but as a second
phase there was a new project to
build a ‘tourism city’ around the
statue. This included theme parks,
attractions, a hotel and government
buildings and much more. A lot
of people come to visit the Statue
of Unity, but none of them stay.
So, the main idea was ‘night
tourism’. The government wanted
to provide the visitors with a
secondary attraction which they
could visit once they had already
been to the Statue of Unity and this
led them to develop the entire city
around the Statue of Unity.”
Naidu adds: “India has over
3,000 monuments and visitor
attractions but a lot of these
monuments are dead during the
night-time. There is a great missed
opportunity there and there is
an opportunity to prolong and
enhance the experience of the
visitor. The first step is lighting,
if these monuments can be lit
up then visitors have their first
reason to stay. After that you can
try and develop new ideas to make
sure that the visitors remain
engaged and entertained. What
we are trying to do at Kevadia
city is a totally new treatment
for visitor attractions in India.”
Rhino Engineers was engaged
as the consultant to bring Kevadia
city to life. Naidu talks about the
initial conversations around the
conceptualisation of the project:
“The Chief Minister of Gujrat put
forward Blackpool, UK where
they have creative lighting and
projection to enhance the visitor
experience as a possible source
of inspiration. Dr. Rajiv Kumar
Gupta, additional chief secretary,
Forests and Environment and
managing director of SSNNL
highlighted Las Vegas as an
example of how lighting can be
used to create a great experience.
I was called in and these ideas and
inspirations were communicated
to me and they said they wanted
something that was state of the art.
With these starting points work
commenced, and I began the
process of conceptualising
something for Kevadia city.”
Modern Stage Service was
selected as the integrator for the
project. Wadhwa says: “We were
engaged to primarily deliver the
lighting for the whole city that
surrounds the Statue of Unity. This
was primarily a façade lighting
project for us but of course, there
were some additional components
for the project such as in-lit
animals and palm trees which
we also provided.”
Regarding the lighting products
used Wadhwa says: “We used our
own brand of lighting, Modern
Stage Service is also a lighting
manufacturer. We used a range
of different lighting products such
as wall washers for the buildings,
flood light and spotlights and
neon-flex RGB strips. But the main
thing is that all the lighting and all
the LEDs are programmable from a
central location, you can actually
change the colour of the entire city
with ease if you wanted to. And
that is what is being done, the
lighting for the buildings and the
hotels and the city is programmed
to be a different colour every day.”
Working on the project was not
easy and Naidu details: “There
were a number of challenges for
this project. When work started
it was already monsoon season
and that meant monsoon
showers. All our lighting required
the installation of electrical
equipment and you can
imagine that all these works
are complicated when it rains.
Because of the bad weather there
was also a concern with regards
to timing and delivering the
project on schedule. Lastly, this
was a project with a number of
stakeholders such as the agency,
government department and local
municipality. We had to make sure
all of them were brought on for
strategic decisions which required
a fair bit of coordination.”
Wadhwa adds: “When we got
to the site with our 40-person
team, there were no hotels, no
apartments and really not many
places to rent because the location
was not very developed. Of course,
now after the government
investment it is a much more
developed city but at that time the
infrastructure was not present.
Now we have food courts, hotels
and a lot of visitors coming up.
But at the start of the project this
was not the case. So, we had to
contend with the less than ideal
situation and all the associated
problems that come with it.”
Modern Stage Service also faced
its fair share of challenges that are
part and parcel of the integrator’s
job on any project. Wadhwa says:
“The civil works were going on
even when our installation
started. Everyone had 80 days to
get the project done so everyone
was working hard to make the
deadline. But it was a challenge
for us because sometimes when
we had to put lights in a location
the other contractors wanted to
maybe break down a wall. So, we
had to keep reworking everything
within the short span of time we
had. The other challenge was that
the Statue of Unity was open to
visitors, so we had a lot of tourists
coming and stopping by. So, if we
had to put some wiring down that
was cutting across the road it was
a logistical problem because we
had to make sure that the roads
could be shut and that it would
not negatively impact the flow of
the tourists.”
Despite the challenges, the
AV professionals were able
to complete the project on
schedule. Naidu concludes:
“The vision of the government
with regards to the Kevadia
city project was grand, from
Blackpool to Las Vegas serving as
inspiration. As the consultant for
the project, I will be honest I felt
some trepidation trying to create
something that matched those
locations. But after sharing my
initial designs, I was relieved
that the client was behind my
ideas and concepts. Of course,
the identity of our project is
so different, and I think our
installation takes into account
local culture and traditions.
We matched the requirements
of the brief given to us and
what we have created delivers
a wow-factor while staying
true to the original push of the
government.”