ગાંધીનગર, ૩૦ ઓક્ટોબર, ૨૦૨૬: રાષ્ટ્રીય એકતા દિવસ નિમિત્તે વડાપ્રધાન નરેન્દ્ર મોદીની એકતાનગર મુલાકાત માટે રાજ્ય સરકારે ₹૪૨૬.૭૧ કરોડના ૩૧ કામોની યાદી જાહેર કરી છે: ₹૩૦૭.૮૩ કરોડના ૨૩ તૈયાર પ્રોજેક્ટ્સનું લોકાર્પણ અને ₹૧૧૮.૮૮ કરોડના ૮ કામોનું ખાતમુહૂર્ત. તેમાં IRCTC હોટલ, નવી એકતા ક્રૂઝ, રેઇન ફોરેસ્ટ અને ઇકો-ટ્રેઇલ જેવા પ્રવાસન આકર્ષણો ઉપરાંત સુએજ અને પાણી શુદ્ધિકરણ પ્લાન્ટ જેવી માળખાકીય સુવિધાઓનો સમાવેશ થાય છે.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's two-day visit to Ekta Nagar (Kevadia) in Narmada district for Rashtriya Ekta Diwas on October 30–31, 2026 came with a long list of works around the Statue of Unity. Gujarat's Urban Development and Urban Housing Department said on October 30 that he was scheduled to inaugurate 23 completed projects worth ₹307.83 crore and lay foundation stones for eight more worth ₹118.88 crore — 31 works and ₹426.71 crore in all.

The department announced the list ahead of the visit. The costs below are the government's figures; we have grouped them by what they mean for a visitor, and added up the items the announcement prices individually.

New for visitors

  • IRCTC hotel — ₹50 crore, the single largest item on the inauguration list.
  • Travelators to move visitors between points on the campus — ₹28.22 crore.
  • A new Ekta Cruise vessel — ₹16 crore.
  • Rain Forest — ₹14.30 crore by this announcement (see the note on cost below). Our full write-up: Ekta Nagar's new rain forest and its 220-metre glass skywalk.
  • Eco-trail — ₹3.67 crore.

Smaller attractions without a separate price include Ekta Prakash Parv (a display on national unity and India's cultural heritage), an upgraded Unity Glow Garden, facade lighting on the Statue of Unity campus, new fountains and sculptures, an expanded and landscaped Shoolpaneshwar Narmada ghat, two 9-metre air-conditioned electric buses, drinking-water stations, and a longer walkway from Ekta Nagar railway station to the Visitor Centre.

The infrastructure behind it

  • Sewage treatment plant — ₹45.53 crore
  • Parade track and allied works — ₹23.81 crore
  • 24-metre colony road, to ease traffic — ₹23 crore
  • Water treatment plant — ₹21.40 crore
  • Staff quarters for Ekta Nagar employees — ₹14.25 crore

Also inaugurated without separate costs: CISF barracks, a terminal building and jetty near Mokhdi village, a road at Statue of Unity Gate No. 8, and Geocell-based landscaping to green the stone-pitched slopes of the new high-level Gora bridge.

By the numbers: the ten inaugurations with a stated cost add up to ₹240.18 crore. The other 13 works on the list account for the remaining ₹67.65 crore of the ₹307.83 crore total.

Foundation stones: ₹118.88 crore

  • Gora–Bhandra road — ₹59.32 crore
  • Smart zero-waste integrated solid waste management project — ₹36.58 crore
  • Khalvani bridge — ₹7.72 crore
  • Integrated development of the Cactus Garden and Butterfly Garden — ₹5.79 crore
  • Khalvani eco-tourism site — ₹5.15 crore
  • Widening of Vaghadia road, from Mandva Faliya to the river-rafting point and the solid-waste site
  • A disaster control room for the safety and emergency management of the Sardar Sarovar Dam

The five priced items come to ₹114.56 crore, which leaves ₹4.32 crore for the Vaghadia road and the disaster control room together.

A note on the Rain Forest's cost

This announcement puts the Rain Forest at ₹14.30 crore. A separate release from the Forest and Environment Department a day earlier gave ₹9.49 crore for the same 47,000 sq m project. Neither release explains the gap; the larger figure may cover a wider scope of work, but that is not stated.

Why it matters

Most of the money goes on things that make a longer stay possible — a hotel, faster movement around the campus, water and sewage capacity, and more to see — rather than on the statue itself. For the towns around Ekta Nagar, a visitor who stays overnight instead of making a day trip is worth considerably more.

Railways also ran extra trains to Ekta Nagar for the celebrations: Kharagpur–Ahmedabad Special 02834/02833 for the Rashtriya Ekta Diwas parade. For how one district marked the day, see Morbi's district-level function at the APMC.

Source

  • Gujarat Information Bureau, Urban Development and Urban Housing Department: press release dated 30 October 2026, “વડાપ્રધાન શ્રી નરેન્દ્ર મોદી 31 ઓક્ટોબરના રોજ એકતાનગર ખાતેથી ₹426.71 કરોડથી વધુના વિવિધ વિકાસકાર્યોનું લોકાર્પણ અને ખાતમુહૂર્ત કરશે” (release ID 55451). Available on GIB's Department Releases page.
  • Gujarat Information Bureau, Forest and Environment Department: press release dated 29 October 2026 on the Rain Forest (release ID 55442), for the ₹9.49 crore figure.
  • Photo: Gujarat Information Bureau.