Ahmedabad
Updated : Dec 27, 2013, 05:01 AM IST
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The collection of iron tools for the over Rs2,000 crore Statue of Unity project is set to commence from Saturday.
Chief minister Narendra Modi will flag-off close to 100 trucks that will travel to different places to collect the iron tools donated by farmers for the project — which is being billed as a ‘fitting tribute to Iron Man Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’.
A senior official of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation said that the CM will address a huge public meeting at Beti Bachao Maidan in Nikol on December 28, where he will flag-off the iron collection trucks. The trucks will travel to different places with the specially-made kits for the iron collection drive. “The trucks will bring back the boxes made for the drive by Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG) with iron tools donated by farmers from across the country and soil samples from every village,” said a government official.
The Narendra Modi government is working closely with various NGOs — one of which is CAG — for the collection of iron from villages for the Statue of Unity project, which will comprise a 182-metre tall statue of Sardar Patel.
According to an official, an estimated 1.87 lakh boxes have been prepared for the drive. The government plans to collect 1 kg of iron from every village in the form of used farming tools, which will be used in the project. However, according to a senior official, the iron tools collected from farmers will not be used in construction of the Statue per se, but in other related works.
With the Lok Sabha elections approaching, the state government is in an overdrive for the Statue project. Just recently, top-level delegations — headed by ministers and also comprising senior officials and elected representatives — toured several states in a bid to sensitise other state governments and also citizens about the project. Run for Unity events were also organised on December 15 at several places in a bid to mobilize support for the statue.
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