Statue of Unity

Then-chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi announced the project on 7 October 2013 to mark the beginning of his tenth year as the chief minister of the state. A society named Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Rashtriya Ekta Trust (SVPRET) was formed under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister of Gujarat, to execute the project. The Statue of Unity Movement was started in 2013 to collect the iron needed for the statue by asking farmers to donate their used farming instruments. By 2016, a total of 135 metric tonnes of scrap iron had been collected and about 109 tonnes of it was used to make the foundation of the statue after processing. ==Design and construction==

was an Indian independence leader responsible for India's unification out of the former British India and 562 princely states. |left|upright Design . After studying statues of Patel across the country a team of historians, artists, and academics chose a design submitted by the Indian sculptor Ram V. Sutar. The Statue of Unity is a larger version of a statue of the leader installed at Ahmedabad International Airport. Three models of the design measuring 0.91 metres (3 ft), , and were initially created. Once the design of the largest model was approved, a detailed 3D scan was produced which formed the basis for the bronze cladding cast in a foundry in China. The design showing Patel's dhoti-clad legs and sandalled feet make the statue narrower at the base with a slenderness ratio that varies between 16 and 19, significantly higher than most tall buildings with ratios between 8 and 14. This presents a challenge to the stability which was addressed in part through the use of two 250-tonne tuned mass dampers. The statue is built to withstand winds of up to and earthquakes measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale which are at a depth of 10 km and within a radius of 12 km of the statue. The height of 182 metres was specifically chosen to match the number of seats in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly. Funding The Statue of Unity was built by a Public-Private Partnership, with most of the money coming from the Government of Gujarat. The Gujarat state government had allotted for the project in its budget from 2012 to 2015. In the 2014–15 Union Budget, was allocated for the construction of the statue. Funds were also contributed by Public Sector Undertakings under the Corporate Social Responsibility scheme. Construction A consortium comprising Turner Construction, Michael Graves and Associates and the Meinhardt Group supervised the project. The project took 57 months to complete – 15 months for planning, 40 months for construction and 2 months for handing over by the consortium. The total cost of the project was estimated to be about by the Government. The tender bids for the first phase were invited in October 2013 and were closed in November 2013. Narendra Modi, then serving as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, laid the statue's foundation stone on 31 October 2013, the 138th anniversary of Patel's birth. Indian infrastructure company Larsen & Toubro won the contract on 27 October 2014 for its lowest bid of for the design, construction and maintenance of the statue. L&T commenced the construction on 31 October 2014. In the first phase of the project, ₹1,347 crore was earmarked for the main statue, ₹235 crore for the exhibition hall and convention centre, ₹83 crore for the bridge connecting the memorial to the mainland and ₹657 crore for the maintenance of the structure for a duration of 15 years after its completion. Around 300 activists were arrested ahead of unveiling of the statue. People of Kevadia, Kothi, Waghodia, Limbdi, Navagam, and Gora villages opposed the construction of the statue and demanded the restitution of the land rights over of land acquired earlier for the dam as well as for the formation of a new Garudeshwar subdistrict. They also opposed the formation of the Kevadia Area Development Authority (KADA) and the construction of the Garudeshwar weir-cum-causeway project. The government of Gujarat accepted most of their demands. Construction of the monument was completed in mid-October 2018; and the inaugural ceremony was held on 31 October 2018 (143rd birth anniversary of Vallabhbhai Patel), and was presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The statue has been described as a tribute to Indian engineering skills. ==Features==

in the museum within the complex The Statue of Unity is the world's tallest statue at . It rises higher than the previous record holder, the Spring Temple Buddha in China's Henan province. The previous tallest statue in India was the tall statue of Lord Hanuman at the Paritala Anjaneya Temple near Vijayawada in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The statue can be seen within a radius. and are surrounded by a long artificial lake formed by the Garudeshwar weir downstream on the Narmada river. The museum in the first zone catalogues Patel's life and contributions. An adjoining audio-visual gallery provides a 15-minute-long presentation on Patel and also describes the tribal culture of the state. The concrete towers which form the statue's legs contain two elevators each. Each lift can carry 26 people at a time to the viewing gallery in just over 30 seconds. The gallery is located at a height of and can hold up to 200 people.{{cite news |title=All you need to know about Sardar Patel Statue of Unity dial 9099799555 ==Tourism==

Over 128,000 tourists visited the statue in the first eleven days of its opening to the public on 1 November 2018. It has been included in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's '8 Wonders of SCO' list. In its first year of operation, the Statue of Unity attracted visitors and collected in ticket revenue. By 15 March 2021, 5 million tourists visited the venue. It was visited by 10 million people by November 2022. In five years since opening, the statue attracted over 15 million cumulative visitors. == Gallery ==

File:‘Statue of Unity’, on the occasion of the Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, at Kevadiya, in Narmada District of Gujarat on October 31, 2018 (1) (cropped).JPG|Statue of Unity, as dedicated on 31 October 2018 File:Statue from highway.jpg|Statue of Unity, as seen from the highway File:Statue lawns.jpg|Statue of Unity, as seen across the lawns File:Statue001.jpg|Statue of Unity, seen from the paved approach walkway File:Statue of Unity - View from the other bank of Narmada.jpg|View from the opposite bank of the Narmada File:Statue of Unity - Close Shot from the other bank of Narmada.jpg|Upper portion of the statue viewing gallery at a height of 130 m is also seen. File:Statue of Unity Sign Board.jpg|''Statue of Unity's signboard across the river'' File:"STATUE OF UNITY"- Kevadia (Gujarat) becomes a "Land of Billion Lights" at night..webm|Statue of Unity, Kevadia at night File:Statue of Unity in 2018.jpg|Skyline of Statue of Unity ==See also==