Around 30,000 visitors come daily to Statue of Unity

    7.5 Crore per year visitors expected by 2020

Winters are considered to be “Goa-time” in Indian tourism circuits but the country now has a new attraction which is drawing huge number of tourists every day. It is not Taj or Udaipur’s palaces but the 182-metre tall Statue of Unity. The world’s tallest statue, which is dedicated to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel stands tall in a river valley in Gujarat’s Narmada district, is fast becoming one of the country’s top tourist attractions drawing about 30,000 people every day. In Narmada river valley near the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat’s Kevadiya, the statue was inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi on October 31. According to media reports 2.79 lakh visitors came to see the statue in a month and its ticket sale generated a revenue of Rs 6.38 crore.

The number of tourists visiting Gujarat is expected to grow by 2.5 crore per year and touch the figure 7.5 crore per year by 2020. Presently, five crore tourists visit the state every year, Tourism Corporation of Gujarat head said to media persons.
On 05 December, 2018 United States Consul-General Edgard Kagan also visited the statue site and spent time at the 153-metres-high viewing gallery. The experience of watching from that gallery is breathtaking as it gives a vast view of the nearby attractions including Sardar Sarovar Dam as well as the Vindhya and Satpura mountain ranges. “It is a very impressive statue and I’m happy to learn the purpose behind its construction,” Kagan said after his visit.

The statue is built to pay tribute to Independent India’s first Home Minister who was instrumental getting 562 princely states to accede to the Indian Union after Independence.