What is the Statue of Unity? Is it worth spending Rs 2,989 crore on the Statue of Unity?

The Statue of Unity (एकता की प्रतिमा or एकत्व मूर्ति) is a monument dedicated to the Indian independence movement leader and the first Deputy Prime Minister of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The tallest statue in the world is located on the river island called Sadhu Bet facing the Narmada Dam near Rajpipla in the Indian state of Gujarat. 

The monument along with its surroundings occupies over 20,000 square meters and is surrounded by a 12 square km artificial lake. 

It is the World's Tallest Statue with a height of 182 meters (597 ft). The project was contracted to Larsen & Turbo in October 2014 for its lowest bid of ₹2,989 crore (US$420 million) for the design, development, and support. The construction was started on December 19, 2015, completed in October 2018. It was designed by Indian sculptor Ram V. Sutar and was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, on 31st October 2018 on the birth anniversary of the Iron Man of India.

The Iron needed for the statue and other constructions were to be collected from farmers of villages all around India in a form of a donation of their used farming instruments. The drive was named the 'Statue of Unity movement'.Three months long nationwide campaign collected 5,000 tonnes of iron. Although it was originally announced that the iron collected will be used for the statue, it later emerged that the collected iron will not be used in the construction of the statue and will instead be used for some other part of the project.

Is it worth spending Rs 2,989 crore on the Statue of Unity?

Disclaimer: Please correct me for my opinions, rather than pointing guns and abusing me. I would not involve in petty politics and negative feedbacks. This report is only for solving ROI purposes and not to promote/oppose any viewpoints.

Yes, in my opinion, it's worth spending Rs 2,989 crore on this statue when we see the profits due to this Tourist attraction.   

Here is the calculation:

Expenses = ₹2,989 crore (US$420 million)

Ticket :

        Entry ticket for adults costs Rs 120, while for children it is Rs 60.

        For Observation Deck view, the ticket price is Rs 350.

        Tickets to avail the bus services cost Rs 30 for adults and Re 1 for children.

Parking – yet to be decided, but let us assume somewhere between Rs 20-50.

Let’s imagine, Statue of Unity would receive 2 million tourists each year. For the convenience of calculation, let us imagine that the sight would host 30% children and 70% adults.

not everyone would go to the observation deck. Assume 60% of tourist buy observation Deck ticket.

number of adults: 1.4 million (2*70%)

number of children = 0.6 million (2*30%)

number of adults who would visit observation deck = 0.84 million (1.4 * 60%)

number of adults who would only buy entry tickets = 0.56 (1.4*40%)

number of children who would visit Observation deck = 0.36 million (0.6 * 60%)

Number of children who would buy entry tickets = 0.24 million (0.6 * 40%)

Number of tourists taking bus = 1 million (2 * 50%)

Number of parking tickets = 1 million/4 = 0.25 million (Assuming a car has 4 passengers on an average)

Revenue = 0.84*350 + 0.56*120 + 0.36*350 + 0.24*60 + 1*30 + 0.25*20 = 294 + 67.2 + 129.6 + 14.4 + 30 + 5 = 550 million-rupee = 7.5 million USD

Assume 10% growth in revenue.

Assume maintenance and other charges to be 5%. Total Income in 30 years would be 500 Million USD.

In 15 years, benefits would be 240 Million USD. 

In 30 years, the estimated benefits would be 830 million USD. 

I would say yes it is worth spending Rs. 2989 Crore on Statue of unity.