Mumbai, Oct 28 (IANS): Engineering and construction conglomerate Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Tuesday said it has won the Gujarat government contract for the Statue of Unity project to build a bronze statue of India's first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

The 182-metre statue, being designed to be the world's tallest at twice the size of New York's Statue of Liberty and a "dream project" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be installed in the Sadhu Bet island on the Narmada river around two hours by road from Baroda city.

The company won the EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contract for Rs.2,979 crore through a bidding process for the project that includes the setting up of a memorial tourist centre with an exhibition hall and hotel around the base of the statue.

The project will take 42 months to complete, L&T said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had in his maiden budget announced that the government has allocated Rs.200 crore to help fund the project that Modi launched before he was elected prime minister.