Statue of Unity, Vadodara, Anand

Gandhinagar, capital of Gujarat is one of the planned city of India & one of the greenest. I have been visiting Gandhinagar on account of my sister living here. After Statue of Unity dedicated to nation on 31st Oct 2018 on Sardar Vallabbhai Patel, I was contemplating to visit it for quite some time. In Oct 2019, I planned to visit it along with family. We drove from Gandhinagar straight to SOU, a 225km drive which took 4 hours thanks to good roads mostly. The SOU is located in the basin of Narmada river, a little ahead of Sardar Sarovar dam in district Kevadia surrounded by Shoolpaneshwar wildlife sanctuary. The place is a bit hilly and forest. The place seem completely transformed looking at the construction, roads, parks around. Statue of Unity is tallest statue in the world at 182m. The first view of statue is breathtaking and from close its imposing. Patel was first home minister of India, instrumental in uniting all princely states and British India into a whole we today know as India. Apart from great unifier, he is also called as Iron man who was strong and stood tall among the leaders of his time. It was befitting to have his statue installed in his home state and aptly name as statue of unity. The statue has already become large tourist destination and has broken records of footfalls and revenue collection. The tickets to SOU can be bought at https://www.soutickets.in/. The statue is built adjacent to river on a raised platform on rocks with a gallery depicting his life stories and stories from independence movement. One could visit SOU at the top but those are separate tickets and due to large crowd could be time consuming to wait and go up. We skipped that part. The statue is made of concrete, steel and brass claddings. It took 3 years to build. When we look in to the history and admire structures built hundreds of years back and still standing, this statue would probably also live for 100s of years. 

SOU on a rock along Narmada watching over the valley

Way to SOU

HUGE is an understatement

SOU across the river

View from SOU, Sardar Sarovar dam in distance

SOU up close

Cloud & sunlight play at SOU

Giant feet of SOU

There was sizeable crowd due to weekend and a bit hot in October. Thankfully, arrangements were excellent and galley was air conditioned and water coolers to quench thirst. There are travelators and escalators for the benefits of folks. There is also a modern food court like in malls and was doing brisk business. Once done admiring the statue, one can admire the river and hills on the other side. There is a large SOU sign as well placed across the river. In the evening there is light & sound show which must be good but we did not plan to wait to see it. The place being remote, one would have to travel in the dark after that. 

After finishing up with SOU, we went to viewpoints for Sardar Sarovar dam. Even though it is visible even from SOU but being up close is a different experience. There is a viewpoint which has a small temple and clear view of Sardar Sarovar dam and downstream river and the hills beyond. The clouds come and played their part in enhancing the view of river & SOU. There are stalls selling local fruits, boiled peanuts etc. Everyone coming to SOU must be coming here and has improved the economy of the place.

Sardar Sarovar dam with few gates open

River, hills and play sunlight peering through clouds

Vadodara evoked memories from my trip here back in 2001 when I came here for railfanning trip. We had come by Mumbai Rajdhani and after enjoying narrow gauge, took my first flight ever from Vadodara airport back to Delhi. However, at that time we did not sightsee anything except railways things of our interest. Vadodara is city of Gaekwads, a Maratha family. We first went to Laxmi Vilas palace which is home to Gaekwad family but it was not open for visitors. Disappointed we wen to Sayaji Baug. The Zoo was quite a relaxing place with lot of trees and walkways. They also had electric trolleys to ferry visitors. We got to see leopard doing rounds in his pen. Birds section too was interesting. Next to zoo is Baroda Museum & Picture gallery which has good exhibits. There is also a toy train within the zoo and it has a bit of history. Earlier the toy train was run by a miniature steam engine which is discontinued long back. It featured in one of songs called Chakke pe Chakka of hindi movie Brahmachari which was released in 1969. Now they currently have a shining modern electric train. The timing was odd so we skipped riding it but then doesn't have the same charm.

Inside Zoo

Baroda Museum

Joy train inside Sayaji Baug

From here we went for lunch at Mandap restaurant which is inside Express Hotel towers which is known for its delicious authentic Gujarati thali. The food was excellent and served like royalty. After satiating ourselves, we headed back to Gandhinagar however in between visit Amul factory at Anand. 

Thali at Mandap restaurant

The factory is open to visit from 2-4 PM only and we timed it perfectly by being there at 2:30pm. Amul needs no introduction. It is one of the largest cooperative movement, business and now a success story which has uplifted lot of farmers around this region and pioneered the white revolution through its operation flood and made India the largest producer of milk. There is a great story of people behind this revolution namely Varghese Kurien, Tribhuvandas Patel and others. I had read the book I too had a dream by Varghese Kurien and was quite familiar with Amul & its story but now got to visit the place as well. More than the book, one should watch iconic movie Manthan by Shyam Benegal, which depicts Amul's initial days. The movie was produced by collect Rs. 2/- from each member of the cooperative. We got our passes from the gate and parked inside. We could see the large towering containers of the factory which stores milk and cream. This plant was dedicated to produce milk powder, butter etc. We were taking around for a round of factory with the representative explaining the operations. It was difficult to imagine so much sophistry, machine and containers required for seemingly simple products like Milk powder, butter, cheese etc. The experience inside the Amul campus was good with staff seem to go out doing their work. The staff may not be highly paid but working in an efficient, positive environment could be fulfilling. Photography was prohibited during the tour so all we can recall from memory. There is a product outlet within premise where one can buy Amul products. 

Amul Factory containers

Inside Amul museum

Amul museum

Amul outlet inside Amul campus

Amul also has a chocolate factory at Mogar but we did not plan to visit it. From here, we left and went back to Gandhinagar. The NE-1 which means National Expressway-1 between Ahmedabad and Vadodara makes the travel so easy.