India's prime minister has unveiled a towering bronze statue of Sardar Vallabbhai Patel, a key independence leader and the country's first home minister after British colonialists left in 1947.
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The state government said at 182 metres, it is the tallest statue in the world built at a cost of $403 million in Kevadiya, a village in Gujarat state.
Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Patel hail from Gujarat state.
Modi inaugurated the Statue of Unity on Wednesday. He had promised the project despite criticism that India as an impoverished nation couldn't afford to spend so much money on a statue.
Patel was known as the Iron Man of India for integrating various states in the post-independence era.
Australian Associated Press