From ‘Loha Campaign’ to Sardar with peasant-like dhoti, how PM Modi guided the story of the Statue of Unity

New Delhi: It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to erect Statue of Unity, the world’s largest statue as a fitting tribute to the Iron Man of India, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel. Citing his stature and role in uniting the nation post-independence, the 182-meter-tall statue can be considered as appropriate tribute to Sardar Patel. Let’s know the story behind construction of Statue of Unity. Loha Campaign: Involvement of farmers across the nation Sardar Patel was a peasant leader. Narendra Modi wanted involvement of farmers from all parts of the nation in the Statue of Unity project. He introduced ‘Loha Campaign’. Under this campaign, 135 tonnes of iron were collected from 100 million farmers in 169,000 villages and it was made sure that this iron donation comes from the farmer’s implements used in their field. This iron collection was used in the foundation of the statue. Why Sardar Sarovar Dam selected for the statue? It was a challenge to select the site of construction for the Statue of Unity. There were many options before Narendra Modi but he proposed to construct it at the Narmada Dam with Sardar’s face looking towards the dam itself. Modi explained that since this dam is the lifeline of Gujarat and Sardar was deeply involved in this project to make Gujarat a water prosperous state, his statue should be looking towards that dam only. And now, the statue is standing tall looking at the Narmada Dam. Daunting engineering feat Statue of Unity is also known as an engineering marvel due to its complex structure and challenges in construction of the statue. K Srinivas, former project director for Statue of Unity recalls that during his interaction with PM Narendra Modi, he was advised to make the statue of Sardar wear a dhoti like peasants would tie it while walking in their fields with their ankles exposed. He further says that it was a big challenge for engineers as the statue was not getting any support from outside. He further says that all the big statues in the world have some sort of support and wide base, but this is the only statue in the world which has narrow base and no outside support. However, this challenge was overcome by the engineers and it continues to amaze engineers visiting the site from abroad. Full-fledged tourism circuit of Kevadia Narendra Modi’s vision for erecting the tallest statue was not limited to the Statue of Unity only, he also envisioned the development of an entire tribal area through boosting tourism to pay a befitting tribute to Sardar and his idea for the nation. Dr Rajiv Kumar Gupta, former MD, Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd says that PM Narendra Modi’s vision and his idea for Statue of Unity was also to bring development in the tribal area around the statue. He planned to develop Kevadia Tourism Circuit to boost tourism in that area. Gupta says that Modi categorically used to say that visitors at Statue of Unity will spend 4-5 hours and then leave the place, this won’t help the locals. They will spend 2-3 days if they get other options here. Jungle Safari, Cactus Garden, Children’s Nutrition Park, Butterfly Garden, River Rafting facilities were developed to boost tourism in the area. As a result, Kevadia has now become one of the most prominent tourist places in the country. How have locals benefitted? PM Narendra Modi’s grand tribute to Sardar Patel would have been incomplete without the development of the local tribal population in Kevadia and other nearby villages. It is also country’s first icon-based development project where the development of an entire area was planned keeping this statue in the centre stage. He asked the officers to conduct training sessions for local people to provide them jobs at the Statue of Unity. All the guides at the statue are now from the local villages. There are others who are employed at different projects in the Kevadia Tourism Circuit as well. Narendra Modi’s determination for development of the locals was significantly evident when on his suggestion Sarvesh Tadvi, the only photographer in the area was given exclusive rights for photography of the Statue of Unity. Now, he has trained more than 11 people from nearby villages who take care of the photography for the visitors at the site. Statue of Unity was inaugurated on 31st October 2018 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to pay tribute to Sardar Patel, but it brought about a paradigm change in the development of the area and the lives of the tribals located near it. This was the dream of Sardar Patel for independent India and no better tribute could have been paid to Sardar than the Statue of Unity. (In association with modistory.com, a volunteer initiative to bring out stories from PM Narendra Modi’s life as narrated by those who experienced it) Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.