Statue of Unity is a memorial dedicated to India's first deputy prime minister and first home minister Vallabhbhai Patel, which is located in the Indian state of Gujarat. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of this giant statue on the occasion of Sardar Patel's birthday on October 31, 2013. This monument is at a distance of 3.2 km from Sardar Sarovar Dam, in a place called Sadhu Bata, which is an island on the Narmada river. This place is located in Narmada district near Bharuch of Indian state Gujarat.
It is the tallest statue in the world, its length is 182 meters (597 feet). After this, the world's second tallest statue is the spring templed Buddha in China, with a total height of 208 meters (682 feet) depending on its base.
Initially, the total cost of this project was kept by the Indian government at around Rs 3,001 crores (US $ 438.15 million), after Larsen & Toubro bid the lowest Indian rupee 2,989 crores (US $ 436.39 million) in October 2014; Including shape, construction and maintenance. Start of construction started on October 31, 2013 Construction of the statue ended in mid-October 2018 It was inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 31 October 2018 on the occasion of Sardar Patel's Birthday.
This project was announced by the Gujarat Government on October 7, 2010. To make this idol, iron was collected from the farmers living in the village of whole of India by collecting the old and the useless tools used in farming. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Integration Trust opened 36 offices throughout India for this work, which aimed to raise the iron from about 5 lakh farmers. This campaign was named "Statue of Unity Campaign". In the 3 month long campaign, about 6 lakh villagers donated iron to the idol establishment. During this, about 5,000 metric tons of iron was collected. Although initially it was announced that the collected iron would be used in the main statue, but later it could not be used in the iron statue; And it was used in other construction projects related to the project.
The "Suraj" prayer form was created by the campaign to build the idol in which the public could write their opinion on better governance. Two million people signed their name on the SURAJ prayer letter, which became the world's largest prayer pamphlet signed. On 15 December 2013, a marathon named "Run for Unity" was also held throughout India. A large number of people participated in this marathon too.
