Gujarat Confidential: Research Ready

Gujarat Cadre bureaucrat Sanjay Joshi, who has served in the post of chief manager, Statue of Unity Project, while sharing challenges about the project, pointed out that more than the construction, it was the research on the content available on Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. During a session on Sardar Patel organised by Gujarat Institute of Civil Engineers and Architects in Ahmedabad on Friday, Joshi said, “The biggest challenge was how to construct such a tall structure and it should look like a living person… and right in the centre of the river. Such a location was never selected, added with the challenge that the road leading to this place was hardly 12 to 15 feet… This is before 2013. But the bigger challenge, looking at the political conditions – was the content available on Sardar Patel. Because we had to be ready. So I thought to let me research myself. And that is how, being a civil servant, I ended up as a ‘doctorate’ on Sardar Patel,” Joshi, who was till 2024 part of the faculty at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, said.