Gopal Vastapara, 58, a businessman from Amreli and a Sardar Patel fan, has come up with a unique idea to celebrate the upcoming 147th birth anniversary of the Iron Man who played a vital role in uniting India. Being a Patel fan, he wanted to do something that will lead more and more people to think about him and get inspired by the leader.
While PM Modi's initiative to build Statue of Unity impressed Gopal, he thought that if every village had a statue of Sardar, it would give an opportunity to the villagers to learn more about the leader and get inspired. On 31st October, India will be celebrating the 147th birth anniversary of Sardar Patel. To mark the occasion, Gopal came up with a project of creating 147 statues of Patel which are larger than life size. These statues would be installed at prominent locations across Gujarat.
Gopal who is engaged in construction business, has selected a special kind of fibre for the statue and decided to paint the statue in golden colour. Each 8 ft tall statue weighs 100 kg. He said that if any Sarpanch is interested in installing the statue, he would give it to them free of cost. The message spread like fire and lots of Sarpanchs are willing to install the statue in their villages. Gopal said that he has spent £100,000 in creating the statues and he doesn't plan to take any money from anyone for this project.
Gopal's wife Muktaben and his three children are his biggest motivators. Not deterred by the money he is spending, they are encouraging him to spend more on such activities. Initially Gopal wanted to give 58 statues because it is his 58th birthday. However, later he thought that this was not about him, but about Sardar Patel. So he changed the plan. The people from other villages are so happy that they are coming in groups to collect the statue.
