Statue of Unity in India fail

Statue of Unity in India fail

I visited the place recently.

It's gigantic.

How gigantic?

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The tourist inflow is decent to say the least.

You can see the queue here.

This captures the bustle better. The reason for this decent amount of footfall is it's organisation and Infrastructure. A INR 150 ticket caters a Volvo bus service from the pick-up point to :

• Statue of Unity.
• Sardar Sarovar dam &
• Valley of flowers.

Including sight seeing.

For the fan of stats, it has been visited by ~ 38 lacs [1] people till January 2020. With revenue of ~INR 82 Cr [2]from 31st october 2018 (inauguration) till December.

Which is decent if compared to Taj Mahal's yearly revenue of ~ INR 86 Cr [3] in 2019–2020. (Visitors ~ 70 lacs).

So, it's relatively successful given the pre-existing heritage value of Taj Mahal.

I am sure, the numbers will only get better as more and more people will visit the place in upcoming years due to word of mouth.

Moreover, If it were not working out well, they would never have thought of expanding a place to cater a animal (biotic) theme park (he didn't mention zoo) in the vicinity (work in progress). As mentioned by the guide in bus.

It's a relative success in terms of footfalls and revenue. It has boosted the economy of Narmada district in Gujarat.

• The dam.

• Valley of flowers (mind my photography).
• Finally the statue in it's entirety.

• If you are fan of watching rivers flow. (I am)

• Narmada River.

• View of river from the site.

• Sit outs along the river.

• Valley of flower. (For a better grasp)

• Vantage view

• Eateries.

• The shuttle bus from Inside.

• Viewing stand. The location from where I captured the queue.

Image source :

My smartphone

EDIT - Thanks for the overwhelming response. 🙏

There are a lot of comments questioning it's financial feasibility and rightly so, indeed a lot of capital has been burned on the site (If only considered from finance standpoint). The opportunity cost is indeed high.

Anyways, the revenue for any tourist site is expected to be just enough to arrange for repairs and operating expenses. You don't want to burn money further from your pocket, that's it.

If the surplus is decent, then expansion can also be undertaken.

Such monuments actually create passive income and active Goodwill.

How?

Firstly, the site is tallest in the world. Anyone who may be searching for “Statue of Liberty” will come to know about SoU. It features India's name in record books.

Tourist sites are just like tableau, they intend to brings International attention, and thus attracts investment and publicity.

Just like any ad campaign. You don't account profit from the sale of posters featuring The celebrity. You account for your increase in sales for the product advertised.

Let's take “Char Minar” Hyderabad as an example.

I have nothing to do with the place. But when I think of Char Minar, I read about Hyderabad. I read further how the city is dubbed as “Cyberabad” also. I know there are people and a business will thrive there.

So I will plan to setup my business there. And thus,

• Generating revenue for the local administration.
• Creating competition there. Which will improve living standard.
• Came to know about a new culture.
• Will publicise the local Hindu-Muslim unity there in my native.

You see, it all started from Char Minar.

I have visited many sites in India which have amazing tourist potential. Yet they are being overlooked by masses as they are not being capitalised upon.

The reason for the success in Gujarat is attitude. People here respect heritage and most importantly, are sensitive towards their business interests and reputation.

That's the reason I project future success too. There will be no paan stains on the floor after 5 years.

Gujarat is actively working a plan to create 10% of GDP from Tourism by 2022. Which is a real “Ghar baithe paise” source for any government.

Conclusion : Not a white elephant project as of now.

EDIT 2 -

Apparently, there is a laser show too between 19:15 and 19:45 hrs. Which I missed.

After watching the pics, I have nothing but regrets. Maybe next time, when I visit with my family.

A sample image (source - Google images).

Thanks for mentioning in comments people.🙏

A picture of the dam reservoir.