The Statue of Unity, at 182 metres, is twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty in New York.
Highlights
- Statue of Unity in TIME's "World's 100 Greatest Places of 2019"
- Record 34,000 people visited site in a single day, says PM Modi
- Glad it's emerging as a popular tourist spot, he said
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today expressed his happiness over the listing of the Statue of Unity in Gujarat in TIME magazine's ''World's 100 Greatest Places of 2019''. He said the 182-metre statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel attracted 34,000 visitors in a single day recently.
"Excellent news vis-a-vis the ''Statue of Unity''- it finds a spot in the @TIME 100 greatest places 2019 list. And, a few days back, a record 34,000 people visited the site in a single day. Glad that it is emerging as a popular tourist spot," PM Modi tweeted.
Billed as the tallest in the world, the Statue of Unity was inaugurated by the Prime Minister on Sardar Patel's birth anniversary on October 31 last year at a grand ceremony.
The statue is located in a remote stretch in Narmada district, with the nearest city Vadodora being about 100 kilometres away and Ahmedabad, more than 200 kilometres away.
It is twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty in New York, 100 times larger than a normal human being, and at 70 feet, Sardar Patel's face is bigger than the faces of the US Presidents cut out on Mount Rushmore in the US.
Designed by Maharashtra's legendary architect Ram V Sutar, the Sardar Patel statue was conceived as a naturalistic depiction of the freedom fighter in his characteristic style in a walking pose, rising out of a star-shaped geometric base that covers the entire Sadhu Hill.
The Statue of Unity's viewing gallery is situated at a height of around 500 feet, according to an official of the state-run Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL).
The statue is built to withstand winds of up to 290 kmph and earthquakes of magnitude up to 6.5.
Mumbai's Soho House is the other place in India that has been featured in the coveted TIME magazine list.
(With inputs from ANI)