At 182-metre, the statue is touted as the world’s tallest – it is 177 feet higher than China’s Spring Temple Buddha, currently the world’s tallest statue.
AHMEDABAD: PM Modi on Wednesday unveiled the ‘Statue of Unity’ in honour of India’s first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The statue is built on Sadhu Bet Island on Narmada river.
Standing tall at 182 metres from the ground and 240 metres from the Narmada river base, the statue is touted as the world’s tallest statue.
Built at a cost of Rs. 2,989 crore, the statue depicts Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India’s first Home Minister, wearing a traditional dhoti and shawl, towering over the Narmada River.
Air Force planes showered flowers on the statue in a grand inaugural event on the banks of the Narmada river in Gujarat as PM Modi dedicated it to the nation. The ceremony coincided with Sardar Patel’s 143rd birth anniversary.
First Home Minister of Independent India Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is credited with merging 550 princely states into the Union of India.
He had used force to annex princely states of Junagadh ruled by Nawab and Hyderabad ruled by nizam, both of whom had wished not to merge their states with the India union.
The statue has been designed by Padma Bhushan-winning sculptor Ram V Sutar and has been built by Larsen and Toubro and the state-run Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd. It took about 250 engineers and 3,400 labourers to construct the statue in 33 months.
PM Modi hit out at his critics after inaugurating the statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. In a veiled attack on Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, PM Modi said had Sardar Patel not worked for unity”, “shiv bhakts” wouldn’t have been able to pray at the Somnath Temple today.
“Statue of Unity is to remind all those who question India’s existence and its integrity. This country was, is and will always be eternal,” PM Modi said.