PM Modi on two-day Gujarat visit; inaugurates tourism attractions at Statue of Unity

The inauguration of the 17 projects and laying of the foundation stone of four projects around the Statue of Unity has now turned Kevadia into 'Kevadia tourism circuit'.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a two-day visit to Kevadia in Narmada, inaugurated 17 tourism projects around the Statue of Unity complex and laid foundation stones for four upcoming projects on Friday.

Modi was accompanied by Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Governor Acharya Devvrat.

The inauguration of the 17 projects and laying of the foundation stone of four projects around the Statue of Unity has now turned Kevadia into ‘Kevadia tourism circuit’ — a concept promoted by the government to attract tourists for a minimum two-day outing in the area.

The Prime Minister hopped on to the train and indulged in games inside the Children’s Nutrition Park, cruised in a jetty along the six kilometre navigation channel downstream Narmada River and petted animals and birds at the Sardar Patel Kevadia Zoological Park — projects that were slated for inauguration on March 26 but postponed due to the outbreak of the Covid19 pandemic and the subsequent nationwide lockdown.

Modi began his Kevadia visit by inaugurating the Aarogyavan, which has over 1000 species of medicinal and herbal plantations. He then travelled through the various gardens in golf carts –with a hand sanitizer kept close and a face mask on at all times, except for a couple of selfie points, where he stopped to take pictures.

The Prime Minister also took keen interest in the species of plants in open-to-air pavillion of the indoor plants inside the Arogyavan, which has been designed to symbolise a ‘lotus’. Modi also had a short interaction with the women self-help groups from 331 families that will run the Aarogya Cafe — a health cafeteria where tourists will also be able to purchase herbal items that are sourced mainly from the rich forests and villages around the statue of unity.

The Children’s Nutrition Park has a train running along a 600 metre track and five themed station stoppages –Phalshaka Griham, Payonagari, Annapoorna, Poshan Puram and Swastha Bharatam, Sanskrit words to explain holistic growth. Each of the stations has a mascot — Kumar Kisan, a puppet farmer who tells the story of how he grows fruits and vegetables at Phalshakha, an animated cow grazer Janardhan at Payonagri, who explains the importance of milk and a doting mother at Annapoorna stations. Modi and Rupani indulged in childen’s games including churning of buttermilk at Payonagri and identifying food items on an interactive screen at Poshan Puram.

Modi also watched a five minute long 5D movie on India’s “unity in food diversity”, with animated characters talking of food habits in the West, East, North and South of India — highlighting the vegetarian foods like Dhokla, Idlis, Dal Chawal and Aloo Parantha with Lassi to explain that pulses and cereals are the common factor in India’s food habits. He also inaugurated the two-storeyed Ekta Mall, spread over an area of 35000 sq feet, which houses handicrafts and handlooms from across the country.

After a brief lunch break, Modi returned to stroll through the jungle safari, spread over an area of 375 acres –touted as the fastest built safari in the world– and walked through the geodesic dome for Aviary, which is said to be the largest in the world. The Indian Aviary is 150 metres long, 50 metres wide and 18 metres high while the Exotic Aviary is 125 metres long, 35 meters wide and 18 metres high. Modi spent time petting a macaw before a deer chased the Prime Minister’s golf cart for a sufficient distance in the herbivore enclosure.

The PM also inaugurated the SoU Website in UN languages, Glow Garden and the Special Lighting at the Narmada Dam, after taking the six kilometre cruise downstream Narmada in the jetty called Ekta Cruise. Modi also laid the foundation stone for the government quarters and an administrative building coming up in the vicinity following the implementation of the Statue of Unity Area Development and Tourism Governance Authority.

On Saturday, Modi will inaugurate the Water aerodrome project connecting Statue of Unity to Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad by taking the seaplane ride back to Ahmedabad after addressing the trainee officers of Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) from the exhibition hall of the Statue of Unity via live video-conferencing.

Narmada district has been identified by the NITI Ayog as the Aspirational District with a special focus on the indicators monitoring not only the infrastructure or economic returns but also social indicators like health, education, women empowerment, nutrition and local ecology. The Statue of Unity attracted 1.28 lakh tourists within first two week of its launch on October 31, 2018. Within the first two months, it attracted more than five lakh visitors and till date more than 44 lakh tourists have visited this place. The aggregate annual figure of footfalls at SoU in 2019 was 30.3 lakh visitors, according to the SSNNL.

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