The Statue of Unity, which stands at 182 meters tall, is the world’s tallest statue, twice the size of the Statue of Liberty. It is India’s tribute to India’s first deputy prime minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s contributions. The Statue of Unity was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 31, 2018, which also marked the 143rd birth anniversary of Sardar Patel, the Ironman of India. This astounding piece of art is located in Gujarat’s Narmada district and to reach it, one has to reach Kevadiya first.
Only after a year of its inauguration, the Statue of Unity has surpassed the Statue of Liberty in the number of visitors. The Statue of Unity is now getting an average of 15,000 tourists per day while the Statue of Liberty has an average of 10,000 tourists visiting the statue per day.
A statement by Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd said, “With 74 per cent increase over the daily average of the first year, that is, November 1, 2018, to October 31, 2019, daily average of 15,036 is now registered in the first month of this second year. This has further increased to 22,430 on weekend days. The Statue of Liberty of New York, United States, attracts around 10,000 visitors a day!”
With 22,430 visits on weekends and 15,000 visits on an average, the Statue of Unity now attracts an average of 50% more visitors than the Statue of Liberty and 100% more visitors on weekends. The Statue of Liberty is a 133-year-old statue.
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In the statement, Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd credited the rise in footfall at the monument to the addition of several new tourist attractions such as jungle safari, children’s nutrition park, cactus garden, butterfly garden, Ekta nursery, dino trail, river rafting, boating, alongside multiple budget accommodation options.
“These additional tourist attractions have led to a sharp increase in the daily tourists’ footfall during November 2019,” it said.
When the Statue of Unity was inaugurated, several distracters had cast aspersions on the revenue that this statue would be able to attract and the footfall it might get. The Print had published an article that claimed that the Taj Mahal earns Rs 25 crore in revenue a year. Rathee estimated that the Statue of Unity would be lucky to get even 10% of that, suggesting that the Statue would expect to make just about Rs 2.5 crore.
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It is now being revealed that till the 30th of November this year, a total of 30,90,723 tourists have visited Kevadia generating a total income of Rs 85.57 crore. In fact, only in the first 11 months of the statue being inaugurated, 26 lakh people had visited the Statue of Unity.
