Gujarat Congress has slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over a Chinese company having reportedly been awarded a sub-contract for constructing a 182-metre tall statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
The state Congress general secretary Nishit Vyas demanded an immediate cancellation of the contract adding that Modi had misled the country with his false claims on Make in India campaign.
Vyas said that the job for designing, construction and maintenance of the statue must be awarded to Indian companies only.
He said that “handing over the contract of the statue project to Chinese amounts to betrayal of the promises made with the people of the country.”
The project was awarded to Larsen and Toubro, one of Indian’s leading engineering company, in 2014. The estimated cost of this project is expected to be Rs. 2,979 crores.
Ehat has irked the Modi’s detractors is L&T’s decision to give sub-contract to a Chinese company, Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group.
PM Modi has been championing Make in India initiative to promote whar he said manufacturing sectors in India. However, the reports of constructing Sardar Patel’s statue being given to a Chinesr company has given a new weapon to hos detractors.
This is not the first time Modi’s Make in India initiative has been ridiculed. To mark the International Yoga Day this year, his government had ordered thousands of mats from China. The move was ridiculed by the opposition.
Modi had launched the ‘Statue of Unity’ project with huge fanfare to reportedly honour the former Indian home minister’s contribution.
Once ready, the statue would be the world’s tallest and double the size of New York’s ‘Statue of Liberty’ (93 metres).