The Statue of Unity which was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 31, 2018, to pay a tribute to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel has attracted around 1,08,247 visitors so far in just 10 days since its opening doors.
Until yesterday, the count of tourists visiting the memorial was 74,671. With 33576 tourists visiting today, the number of visitors has gone well-past 1 lakh mark and the revenue generated has crossed whopping Rs 2.1 crores just within 10 days of its inauguration.
Installation of the statue hasn’t gone down well with the usual suspects with a few of them even questioning the government on the necessity of the statue, while others evaluating the time it will require to achieve breakeven. Self-proclaimed activist Dhruv Rathee created an elaborate video and posted it on Youtube explaining how it would take almost a century to recover the cost incurred in setting up the statue. He also questioned Modi government’s economic prudence in having it at the banks of river Narmada, for it will hardly attract any visitors and tourists there.
With these figures trickling down, it appears that the naysayers will have to eat their words back on the assertions they made regarding the quantum of tourists visiting the statue and the time it will take to retrieve the cost incurred in building the statue.