A VISIT TO STATUE OF UNITY 

Tripoto
15th Jun 2019
Photo of A VISIT TO STATUE OF UNITY  1/1 by Imkannan
"STATUE OF UNITY ", It is the world's tallest statue with a height of 182 metres. It is located in the state of Gujarat located on a river facing the Sardar Sarovar Dam on river Narmada in Kevadiya colony.
Day 1

It was saturday afternoon, 15 JUNE 2019, Me and my freind boarded , TRAIN NO 19115 DADAR - BHUJ EXPRESS , from DADAR WESTERN RAILWAY STATION , We booked the sleeper tickets from Dadar to Ankleshwar junction , which costed RS 205 per person, The train departed on time @ 15.00 hrs

Photo of Dadar Western Railway Platform no. 7, Matunga Central Railway Workshop, Lokmanya Tilak Colony, Dadar, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India by Imkannan

Crossing BILIMORA JN on the way

Photo of Dadar Western Railway Platform no. 7, Matunga Central Railway Workshop, Lokmanya Tilak Colony, Dadar, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India by Imkannan

We reached ANKLESHWAR JUNCTION at 19.50 hrs, i had already booked the hotel (OYO HOTEL MAYURA ) which was nearby station hardly 5 mins walking distance , I had booked ac double bed room which costed me RS 1080 for 24 hrs, The room was very much clean.

Photo of Hotel Mayura Ankleshwar, Near Railway Station, Ankleshwar GIDC, Ankleashwar, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

in the night , We had dinner in EAT WELL RESTAURANT , which was near to the hotel where we stayed , food was ok, normal water which they serve is not good , its taste like salt, pls do buy a mineral water , food costed around RS 320 all together , its a veg/non-veg restaurant .

Photo of Eat Well Restaurant, Char Rasta, Gadkhol Part, GIDC, Ankleshwar GIDC, Ankleshwar, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

After dinner we had Sing soda sarbat @ 20/-, it was good , please do try it , it is just on the way to EAT WELL RESTAURANT

Photo of Eat Well Restaurant, Char Rasta, Gadkhol Part, GIDC, Ankleshwar GIDC, Ankleshwar, Gujarat, India by Imkannan
Day 2

The next day we checked out from the hotel, and went to ANKLESHWAR BUS DEPOT , which was nearby hotel at a distance of 5 mins, There is a small snack shop where u can have biscuits , colddrinks. The depot also has an inquiry counter

Photo of Ankleshwar Bus Depot, Station Road, Mobin Colony, Chickoo Wadi, Ankleshwar, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

We boarded the GSRTC AC-SEATER BUS , which we had already booked online , it costed us RS 123 per person , the bus was scheduled to arrive at 7.55 , but it arrived around 8.30 bus was very comfortable , only thing which i dont like was , it was not clean, plastic bottles, wrappers all over.

Photo of Ankleshwar Bus Depot, Station Road, Mobin Colony, Chickoo Wadi, Ankleshwar, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

Finally we reached at "STATUE OF UNITY" around 11.00 am, since we already had booked our tickets online, we didn't had to wait in the que, We had taken the SOU EXPRESS TICKET which costed per RS 1030 per adult, other tickets available are SOU VIEWING GALLERY & SOU ENTRY TICKET which costs 350& 150

Photo of Statue of Unity (Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Statue), Kevadia, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

Map of "STATUE OF UNITY"

Photo of Statue of Unity (Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Statue), Kevadia, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

View from the top of "SOU", There is as lift which will take one to the top, The lift has a capacity of 12-16 people to take at a time, If you have the SOU viewing gallery ticket , it will take around 2-3 hrs to reach the top, specially during weekend there is lot of rush.

Photo of Statue of Unity (Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Statue), Kevadia, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

Inside view of the top floor, very well constructed , i was very much fascinated.

Photo of Statue of Unity (Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Statue), Kevadia, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

View of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, from the top .

Photo of Statue of Unity (Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Statue), Kevadia, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

View at the ground floor.

Photo of Statue of Unity (Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Statue), Kevadia, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

A look at how the statue was constructed.

Photo of Statue of Unity (Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Statue), Kevadia, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

A Mini theatre inside the ''SOU".

Photo of Statue of Unity (Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Statue), Kevadia, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

A view of the library inside"SOU"

Photo of Statue of Unity (Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Statue), Kevadia, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

Que for the SOU VIEWING GALLERY TICKET HOLDERS.

Photo of Statue of Unity (Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Statue), Kevadia, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

A pic taken from the foot of statue of unity .

Photo of Statue of Unity (Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Statue), Kevadia, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

After visiting "SOU" , had lunch at the "Food court", which is just opposite to ticket counter, once can find counters of SUBWAY , CAFE COFFEE DAY etc

Photo of Statue of Unity (Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Statue), Kevadia, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

We had veg thali and something made of dhokla and bundi , dont remember the name, the food costed us RS 190

Photo of Statue of Unity (Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Statue), Kevadia, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

A View outside the food court , there are benches kept over here , this is where laser show takes places later in the evening.

Photo of Statue of Unity (Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Statue), Kevadia, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

A look at the SOUVENIR SHOP next to food court , where one can buy t-shirts, pen, a small replica , keychains of "SOU"

Photo of Statue of Unity (Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Statue), Kevadia, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

After having lunch, and visiting souvenir shop, we decided to explore other places near " SOU", We were in the que for the bus .

Photo of Statue of Unity (Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Statue), Kevadia, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

Finally it was our turn to board the bus, the bus charge is included in the ticket cost i.e RS 30, so one need not pay anything extra while boarding the bus, frequency of the bus are very good , every 2 to 3 minutes , there is a bus which will take us to explore other places of "SOU".

Photo of Statue of Unity (Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Statue), Kevadia, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

The first stop of the tour was "Valley of flowers", Once can see the "SOU" in the background. The bus is more like hop on hop off bus.

Photo of Statue of Unity (Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Statue), Kevadia, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

Some pics taken at "Valley of flowers"

Photo of Statue of Unity (Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Statue), Kevadia, Gujarat, India by Imkannan
Photo of Statue of Unity (Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Statue), Kevadia, Gujarat, India by Imkannan
Photo of Statue of Unity (Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Statue), Kevadia, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

The other place that we visited was the Sardar Sarovar Dam, couldn't take a pic, while many other places of the "SOU" were still under construction, in days to come, one can find various tourists spots in " SOU", such as river rafting, eco tourism, childrens park, tent city, boating etc. Finally it was a good bye, from " SOU" and it was time to headback to bombay later in the afternoon, we left from "SOU" around 14.30 hrs, At that time there was no direct buses for ankleshwar , so we hired shared autorickshaw for Rajpipla bus stand at the cost of Rs 40 per person. And we reached rajpipla at 15.00hrs.

A Pic of Rajpipla bus stand. Our bus arrived for ankleshwar and we left around 15.20 hrs . Ticket per head for the bus costed RS 61, we reached ankleshwar around 17.30 hrs .

Photo of A VISIT TO STATUE OF UNITY by Imkannan

Later in the evening we had dinner, in a restaurant nearby ankleshwar railway station. Food and service was excellent, we spent RS 200 for our dinner.

Photo of A VISIT TO STATUE OF UNITY by Imkannan

It was time to board the train for mumbai , we had booked tickets online. We boarded Train no 19020 Dehradun express , which was upto bandra terminus , train arrived at 21.30 hrs , ticket costed us RS 190 per person for sleeper class, Later in the morning we reached bandra terminus at 05.00 hrs .

Photo of Ankleshwar Junction, Ankleshwar GIDC, Ankleshwar, Gujarat, India by Imkannan

It was end of our wonderful journey, The whole trip costed us around Rs 2500 per person. We preferred taking the SOU Express ticket , which gave us express entry to the SOU , if you want to cut down the cost , one can buy SOU Viewing gallery ticket instead which will cost around RS 380 per head , and will easily bring down the budget to RS 1750 Per person