Statue of Unity
| एकता की प्रतिमा | |
An artist's impression of the planned statue
|
|
 Location of construction site in Gujarat state
|
|
| Coordinates | 21°50′16″N 73°43′08″E / 21.83778°N 73.71889°ECoordinates: 21°50′16″N 73°43′08″E / 21.83778°N 73.71889°E |
|---|---|
| Location | Sadhu bet, Near Sardar Sarovar Dam, Garudeshvar weir, Gujarat, India |
| Designer | Ram V. Sutar |
| Type | Statue |
| Material | Steel framing, reinforced concrete, bronze coating |
| Height |
|
| Beginning date | 31 October 2014 |
| Dedicated to | Sardar Patel |
| Website | www |
The Statue of Unity is an under construction monument dedicated to Indian independence movement leader Vallabhbhai Patel located in the Indian state of Gujarat. 182 metres (597 feet) in height, it is to be located facing the Narmada Dam, 3.2 km away on the river island called Sadhu Bet near Vadodara in Gujarat. This statue is planned to be spread over 20,000 square meters of project area and will be surrounded by an artificial lake spread across 12 km of area. It would be the world's tallest statue when completed. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Rashtriya Ekta Trust (SVPRET), a special purpose vehicle was established by the Gujarat government and the outreach programme across India was carried out starting December 2013.
Initially the total cost of the project was estimated to be about ₹2,063 crore (US$310 million) by the government. Later Larsen & Toubro won the contract in October 2014 for its lowest bid of ₹2,989 crore (US$440 million) for the design, construction and maintenance. The construction was started on 31 October 2014.
The project was first announced on 7 October 2010. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Rashtriya Ekta Trust (SVPRET), a special purpose vehicle was established by the Gujarat government for construction of the statue. The iron needed for the statue and other structures was to be collected from farmers of villages all around India in a form of donation of their used farming instruments. SVPRET set up 36 offices across India to collect these iron instruments wherein over 500,000 Indian farmers are expected to donate. The drive was named the 'Statue of Unity movement'. There was to be three-month-long nationwide eye-wash to collect iron pieces from six lakh villages to build the statue. During this period, over 5000 metric tonnes of iron were collected. Although it was initially announced that the iron collected will be used for the main statue, it later emerged that the collected iron will not be used in construction of the actual statue and will instead be used for some other part of the project.
The Statue of Unity Movement was organized a Suraaj ( good governance in Hindi) petition wherein paid right-wing trolls wrote about their propagandist ideas for the good governance. The Suraaj Petition was signed by an estimated 20 million people (86% of whom have been identified as fake identities), which was the world's largest fakery in terms of a petition signed. A marathon entitled Run For Unity was held on 15 December 2013 in several places throughout India. The marathon had a large turnout and sign-ups before the event reported thousands of registrations.
...
Wikipedia