Type of visit: Monument, Nature Love, Picnic, Adventure

Time required/recommended: 3-4 Hrs

I visited: 1st Jan 2020

Tips: Best in Winter 

My Earlier Visit to Sardar Sarovar back in Year-2016:

I visited saradar sarovar dam and surrounding vicinity back in 2016, and it gave me full mental relaxation and peace of soul in that trip. Lush green natural surroundings, un interrupted entrance and freedom of visiting places around which my heart wanted. Above collection of photos of 2016 are still softly engraved in my memories.

Visit To Statue Of Unity - 2020:

Keeping same enthusiasm in my heart and desire of calmness in my soul, I planned to visit Sardar Sarovar Dam again on the first day of year 2020.

And this time I had more greed of adventure along with search of peace of mind and body, as this time I was to observe one of the engineering miracle, the world’s tallest statue, “The Statue of Unity”

Whenever I plan to visit such places, I always research on internet about the place, rules, facilities and then make my plan of start to end. Starting from which road to be taken, when to reach, where to park the vehicle, ticketing counter, sequence of places and points to be visited there.

From Parking Lot to VG

As per my planning, I reached there well on time.

Please note that Viewing gallery (termed as VG) has time slots of 2HRs starting from morning 8am. One has to be in the reception hall and near elevator within this time slot. If missed, the last slot after 5PM only will be available to reach upto VG. SO plan your arrival accordingly, keeping the margin of at least 30 mins from Parking your vehicle.

There are 3-4 parking lots available for entire complex. We reached on time, but we were guided to Parking of “Valley of Flowers” which is little away from Parking lot of Statue of Unity spot.

There are busses available which shuttle between these points, such as Valley of Flowers, Dam site, Statue of Unity, etc.

After parking your vehicle in these parking Lots, you need to take these buses to reach to your desired spot.

Note that VG has fixed time slot as per ticket you buy. So it’s obvious that the VG of Statue of Unity has to be visited on that fixed time only and rest of surrounding attraction and other spots can be visited after wards.

Tickets for VG costs 380Rs. Per head (Adults) which includes entry and other monument entry as free. There is a express ticket also available at cost of 1000Rs. But I don’t feel that will help in anyway in both days, crowdie of less crowded.

I had a lot of good hope of better trip this time, But this time, it was neither the peace of mind nor the touch of soul.

It was like a perfect example of how modernization and development is destroying the natural beauty.

Creating some miracle is a great thing but to make it memorable is more important than that. Engineers who made this tallest monument are to be given full respect along with Indian government and farmers who made this take this shape, which is now world famous. However, the manging body of this monument is worst ever I have seen till date. These is sheer lack of management at entire complex.

Starting from Parking the vehicle, I was disappointed at every moment due to various blunders by managing committee.

As I explained that buses needs to be taken from parking to reach to respective spots, but the bus system is very un-managed. There is no sign board on the bus, that to which spot it would take you to from your parking Lot. There is no sign board where to actually stand to get the bus. The security staff is just there for decoration purpose only and they even do not know what they are there for. It may happen that you take the bus for Statue of Unity and after bus starts you will be coming to know that that bus actually is going to Dam site. Really the haphazard way of running this bus system. It would be better to walk between these spots on foot rather than using these bus services and weasting a lot of time in ques and becoming the victim of these un-managed services. We had to finally walk getting disappointed by these. But it was more fun in walking rather than taking the bus.

Note that the complex of Statue of unity is very huge and you have to walk a lot in kilometres to reach upto elevator hall of VG from Parking lot.

Wear comfortable foot wares and have water bottles, caps and sunglasses ready with you for this walking marathon to enjoy 5 minutes of view from VG.

From Parking Lot to VG, you are left on your own to stroll and struggle. There is no guides, no staff, no sign boards as where to go from Parking lot to reach VG. Very Poor upkeep of the complex. Ques will be longer, but also wider, as there is no staff to manage or guide the ques. We are left like sheep to follow each other to reach nowhere without proper guiding sign boards.

The ground floor museum was also not upto my expectations and it has only written frames on the various topics not actually related closely to each other. It seems they has huge complex and needed to cover up with at least some things, and they did somehow.

I spoke to few available staff near museum entrance, near elevator ques, and came to know that even they are frustrated due to lack of proper guiding system in such huge complex and were helpless against my furious comments on this poor management of such a beautiful monument. Even the Entry and Exit Sign boards were not pasted at the Entry and Exit of museum.

There are spots of “Ekta Food court” where you can have tour choice of food. But this too disappointed me a lot. Swatch Bharat Abhiyan was being latterly humiliated as a lot of unmanaged food waste was laying around.

Secondly, the food court accepts cash only, and no facility of digital payment was available. This was one another humiliation of Digital India campaign in the complex, inaugurated by someone who is trying to achieve these dreams. This made me feel pity on ...

There were no facilities of hand wash, toilets... The ambience of Food court was not upto the standards of which it had to be being in complex of worlds record holder monument.

Summary: