Former prime minister and Janata Dal (Secular) chief H D Deve Gowda has praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the making of the world's tallest statue of Sardar Vallabhai Patel in Gujarat.
Gowda, who visited the 182-meter tall statue in Gujarat's Kevadia town on October 5 this month also recalled that Ahmedabad airport was renamed as Sardar Vallabhai Patel International airport and Sardar Vallabhai Patel memorial was built in his home town in Nadiad in the past.
"These have been brought to a logical end by the construction of world's tallest statue for the Iron Man of India," he said according to official PM India website.
The former prime minister also said that it had been made more attractive and indigenous and that is why people across the globe are visiting these places and enjoying the beauty of both the 'Statue of Unity' as well as 'Sardar Sarovar Dam'.
Earlier, Modi too expressed happiness on former Prime Minister's visit to the site.
Taking to Twitter, he had tweeted: "Happy to see our former PM H D Devegowda Ji visit the Statue of Unity."
Prime Minister Modi had announced to build the statue when he was Gujarat's Chief Minister in memory of India's first Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Patel who is credited with uniting all 562 princely states of the pre-independent country to build the Republic of India.
In October last year, Modi had inaugurated the statue on the occasion of Patel's 143rd birth anniversary.
( With inputs from ANI )