Sculptor Ram Sutar to get Maharashtra Bhushan award: CM Devendra Fadnavis

Noted sculptor Ram Sutar has been chosen for Maharashtra Bhushan, the state government's highest civilian award, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis informed the legislative assembly on Thursday.

Sutar, who turned 100 last month, is a Padma Bhushan awardee and has designed the Statue of Unity which is the world's tallest statue with a height of 182 metres.

Fadnavis said the decision to honour Sutar with the highest civilian award of the state was taken unanimously by a committee headed by him on March 12.


"He is a centenarian but is still working on the Ambedkar statue at the Indu mill memorial project in Mumbai," he said.

The award comprises Rs 25 lakh and a memento. Sutar, who works with his son Anil, has been associated with many major projects like the Statue of Unity, the 251-metre tall statue of Lord Ram at Ayodhya, 153-feet high statue of Lord Shiva in Bengaluru and a 100-feet tall statue of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj at Moshi in Pune.

Last year, four months after a 35-feet tall statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj collapsed at Rajkot fort in Malvan in Maharashtra's Sindhudurg district, triggering a massive political slugfest in the state, the Maharashtra government awarded the contract of building a new 60-feet statue of the Maratha warrior king at the fort to Sutar's firm Ram Sutar Art Creations Pvt Ltd that built the 'Statue of Unity' in Gujarat.