GUWAHATI, Oct 9 - The Statue of Unity, said to be the world�s tallest such structure, will be unveiled on October 31, Gujarat�s Agriculture Minister RC Faldu said here today, extending his invitation to the people of Assam to witness the engineering marvel.
Faldu is heading a 12-member delegation that has come to the State to invite the Governor, Chief Minister and the people of Assam for the occasion.
�As a memorial to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the statue will not only remind every individual of our great nation�s freedom struggle, it will also inspire the people of our country to inculcate Sardar Patel�s visionary ideologies of unity, patriotism, inclusive growth and good governance,� Faldu said, adding that the monument will also be a �blessing� for engineering students for research.
At 182 metres, the statue overlooking the Narmada river will be tallest in the world, twice the size of the Statue of Liberty. It has been built at Sadhu Island, about 3.5 km from the Sardar Sarovar Dam at Kevadia in Narmada district.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil the iconic structure on October 31. A month-long exhibition is also being organized from the day for visitors.
Officials in the delegation said Rs 2,332 crore have been spent to build the statue in an area of 19,731 square metres. The monument has an exhibition centre in its base, a memorial garden, a bridge connecting the island with the mainland, a tourist centre, an internal roadway stretching up to 5 km, besides an administrative complex and a conference centre.
The BJP had collected iron, soil and water from across the country to use those to build the statue, a decision announced by Modi in 2013 when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
