The Uttar Pradesh government led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanth has approved a budget of Rs 447 crores to install the world’s tallest 221-metre high statue of Lord Ram.

Reportedly, the statue is part of the Ram Nagari Ayodhya project which will be installed on the banks of River Sarayu. The acquisition of 61.38 hectares of land in Meerapur area will be covered in this amount too.

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A total budget of Rs 447.46 crore was approved for the complete development of Ram Nagari Ayodhya by the UP cabinet. This is apart from the already sanctioned Rs 200 crore sanctioned this year for carrying out technical studies for building the statue. The Lord Ram statue will be build from the budget raised from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

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Apart from acquiring land, the allocated money will be used for tourism development, beautification of Ayodhya, digital museum, interpretation centre, library, parking, food plaza, landscaping and other facilities.

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The state cabinet on Friday announced the decision ahead of the much-anticipated Supreme Court verdict in the Ram Jamambhoomi case. The UP government has also authorised the chief minister to henceforth take any decision in respect of the Lord Ram’s statue.

“This project is being modelled on the Sardar Patel statue project in Gujarat,” UP minister Shashikant Sharma said.

According to a report in Economic Times, Sharma said that Rs 100 crore has been released out of the Rs 200 crore sanctioned amount, which was approved earlier this year for carrying out a detailed project report, wind tunnel and design studies for the statue. The detailed studies of the soil strength and wind-speed at the site have to be conducted to ensure that the statue can be built here.

Earlier, UP Principal Secretary (Information) Avanish Awasthi had said the Lord Ram statue will be built of bronze and the height of the actual statue will be 151 metres, its overhead umbrella would be 20 metres while the pedestal would be 50 metres.

Just last week, the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh had decided to grant the status of “state fair” to the festival of Deepotsav in Ayodhya on the occasion of Deepavali. It had sanctioned a budget of Rs 1.33 crore to organise the event.