India will now have the tallest statue in the
world, and it is the Sardar Patel Statue of Unity. It will add to the symbolic
and rhetorical pride that Indians like to revel in these days.
Statue of Unity, the 182 metres tall marvelous structure, has often been severely criticized by left-liberal intelligentsia of the country. Absurd arguments like, the money spent on Statue of Unity could have been used to build hospitals, and schools have been put forward time and again.
Across the world, historical monuments and sites
are a far better tourist magnet than any modern construction. That is why the
Eiffel Tower gets almost 7 million tourists every year compared to Dubai’s Burj
Khalifa, which gets 2 million tourists despite being the tallest building in
the world.
According to a report published in 2016, the Taj
Mahal earned Rs 75 crores in the previous three years in revenues through sale
of tickets and other paid services. But, as per latest report about the revenue
from Statue of Unity, the statue of Sardar Patel has been visited by 26 lakh
tourists and earned 71.66 crore rupees in the first eleven months. The statue
cost 3,000 crore rupees, and at this rate of revenue, the project would take
less than 50 years to recover the amount.
Gujarat already has two major tourist
attractions, Gandhi circuit and the Great Rann of Kutch and the state economy
and tourism industry is all set to receive a huge boost with the ‘Statue of
Unity’. The statue is located in Narmada district in western Gujarat, 200 km
from Ahmedabad. The area of western Gujarat is also near to Greater Mumbai and
Nashik region which are among the richest regions of the country. Hence, the
sight will attract affluent visitors from the cities like Ahmedabad, Surat,
Mumbai and Nashik.
The statue is already among the top 25 most visited places in the world. Moscow’s Kremlin, 25th most visited place in the world, received 2.47 million tourists in 2018 while the Statue of Unity has already been visited by more than 2.6 million people in the first eleven months. By the completion of one year of opening of the structure to public, the monument is expected to surpass Tower of London which received 2.85 million tourists in 2018.
The statue stands 182 meters tall, more than 100
times the height of an average human being, it is almost double the famous
‘Statue of liberty’ of United States and 54 metres more than Spring Temple
Buddha, the second tallest structure in the world located in China. The ‘Statue
of Unity’ is dedicated to Sardar Patel, famously known as ‘Iron Man of India’
and credited for uniting a country the size of a subcontinent. The huge number
of visitors shows both the affection of the people of the country for Sardar
Patel and the beauty of the marvelous structure.
The ticket price has been kept in affordable range with 120 rupees for regular entry tickets for adults and 60 for kids 3-15 years. If one wishes to enjoy a view from the height of 400 feet from the chest of Sardar Patel, he/she must pay 350 rupees.
