There are some individuals and paid media felt that allocation of 2 Billion Rupees (33 Million US$) to construct a Statue of Unity was not required. Perhaps, after reading few facts and figures mentioned in this blog, they may change their opinion.
First of all: 2 Billion Rupees that has been allocated for 2014-15 Budget is 1/10th of total money required to complete this project. It needs 25 Billion Rupees - Roughly (410 US Million Dollars). So money allocated currently is much less than what is needed. Just to give an idea that why cost is a fair amount, we can take a look at the cost needed to build Spring Temple Buddha in China in late nineties. It took 55 US Million$ and considering the inflation 400 Million is not a big amount. Also another point to consider is that all the money is not going to be spend only on Statue but also on a memorial, visitor center buildings, a memorial garden, a hotel, a convention center, an amusement park, research centers and institutes.
Entire project span to complete the work is estimated to be of 56 months, which includes 40 months of construction work. This means a stable job for plenty of construction worker around that area for almost 4 years. After the completion of statue for maintenance and other stuff, it will require a staff of more than 500 people. So, it is another way of pumping a money in the economy by creating a stable job for years to come.
Now, About how to recover the money that is going to be spend to build a statue? Let's look at some of the numbers. Statue of Liberty in USA gets over 3 Million Visitors each year. Every visitor spends minimum of 20$ on their trip (actually it is close to 40 but let's go with lower side). This means Statue of Liberty generates 60 Million$ annually. If the same amount needs to be considered for Statue of Unity, it will be require 7 years to recover the money that has been spend. If comparison between USA - India is not fair, then let's look at the number of visitors going at Taj Mahal. Each year over 6 Million people visits Taj Mahal - that is double the number of visitors than Statue of Liberty, which means, money to recover might take actually less than 4 years. Out of 6 Million people who visits Tajmahal- 200,000 of them are foreigners. This is foreign money coming to the Indian economy through Tourism - a very big plus.
If we look at the Statue's across the world, it is generally gets tied to a Religion. Christ in Brazil or Buddha in China-Japan. Even India's best monument - Taj Mahal in a way is tied to a religion - a monument built by a Muslim ruler for his wife. Considering that aspect, a party (BJP) which believes in core Hindutva (right wings) could have selected a statue of any other Hindu God and surely not for a person who belongs to their rivals - Congress. But Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is a right choice for statue of Unity - because he was truly the founding father of the Republic of India. Plenty of things-roads-schemes-colleges-hospitals have been build for Nehru and Gandhi but Patel has been left out and this is a fitting tribute to one of the greatest leader of India.
Even if theoretical numbers do not match to recover money in 4 years and it may take 10 years, it is totally worth building Statue of Unity for Sardar Patel. There are businesses which does not start generating profit for decades but the jobs that it creates and product that it produces is far more valuable than checks and balance.
First of all: 2 Billion Rupees that has been allocated for 2014-15 Budget is 1/10th of total money required to complete this project. It needs 25 Billion Rupees - Roughly (410 US Million Dollars). So money allocated currently is much less than what is needed. Just to give an idea that why cost is a fair amount, we can take a look at the cost needed to build Spring Temple Buddha in China in late nineties. It took 55 US Million$ and considering the inflation 400 Million is not a big amount. Also another point to consider is that all the money is not going to be spend only on Statue but also on a memorial, visitor center buildings, a memorial garden, a hotel, a convention center, an amusement park, research centers and institutes.
Entire project span to complete the work is estimated to be of 56 months, which includes 40 months of construction work. This means a stable job for plenty of construction worker around that area for almost 4 years. After the completion of statue for maintenance and other stuff, it will require a staff of more than 500 people. So, it is another way of pumping a money in the economy by creating a stable job for years to come.
Now, About how to recover the money that is going to be spend to build a statue? Let's look at some of the numbers. Statue of Liberty in USA gets over 3 Million Visitors each year. Every visitor spends minimum of 20$ on their trip (actually it is close to 40 but let's go with lower side). This means Statue of Liberty generates 60 Million$ annually. If the same amount needs to be considered for Statue of Unity, it will be require 7 years to recover the money that has been spend. If comparison between USA - India is not fair, then let's look at the number of visitors going at Taj Mahal. Each year over 6 Million people visits Taj Mahal - that is double the number of visitors than Statue of Liberty, which means, money to recover might take actually less than 4 years. Out of 6 Million people who visits Tajmahal- 200,000 of them are foreigners. This is foreign money coming to the Indian economy through Tourism - a very big plus.
If we look at the Statue's across the world, it is generally gets tied to a Religion. Christ in Brazil or Buddha in China-Japan. Even India's best monument - Taj Mahal in a way is tied to a religion - a monument built by a Muslim ruler for his wife. Considering that aspect, a party (BJP) which believes in core Hindutva (right wings) could have selected a statue of any other Hindu God and surely not for a person who belongs to their rivals - Congress. But Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is a right choice for statue of Unity - because he was truly the founding father of the Republic of India. Plenty of things-roads-schemes-colleges-hospitals have been build for Nehru and Gandhi but Patel has been left out and this is a fitting tribute to one of the greatest leader of India.
Even if theoretical numbers do not match to recover money in 4 years and it may take 10 years, it is totally worth building Statue of Unity for Sardar Patel. There are businesses which does not start generating profit for decades but the jobs that it creates and product that it produces is far more valuable than checks and balance.
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