Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is the man behind today’s unified India. He was one of the most important leaders who helped India attain freedom from the British in 1947. India being the world’s most diverse country, Sardar Patel took up the most challenging job of unifying it and hence was given the name ‘Iron Man of India’. The Statue of Unity is raised as an iconic symbol for the future generations to know how a man can unify a country of 560+ princely states to what it is now. My blog post ‘Statue of Unity – Travel Guide to the World’s Tallest Statue’ will give you a detailed information on what you can do at Statue of Unity.
Short History of SoU
The 182m statue on the banks of river Narmada facing the Sardar Sarovar Dam is located in Kevadia (currently Ekta Nagar) which is a small town in the Narmada district of Gujarat. The statue designed by Ram V Suthar was built by melting tons of iron collected from 100 million farmers across the country. The statue’s colour is expected to change as the statue ages. More than 3500 workers were employed to construct this architectural marvel of Sardar Patel in 4 years’ time frame.
Note: Hundreds of local people are employed at the SoU boosting the economy of the district, the state and the country through sustainable tourism.
How to reach SoU?
| From | Distance (approx.) | Time taken (approx.) | Train (to & from – Ekta Nagar Railway Station) | Bus (to & from – SoU bus stand/helipad ground) |
| Ahmedabad | 200 km | 3.5 – 4 hours | JAN SHATABDI EX (20947) | GSRTC |
| Vadodara (Baroda) | 90 km | 1.5 – 2 hours | JAN SHATABDI EX (20947), DDR EKNR SF EXP (12927) | GSRTC |
| Surat | 160 km | 3 – 3.5 hours | DDR EKNR SF EXP (12927) | GSRTC |
- Pre-book your buses at GSRTC portal/mobile app
- Pre-book your train tickets at IRCTC portal/mobile app
- SoU team also offers you a day’s tour packages from Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat where the standard cost for a person is Rs.2500/- and it is the same for people boarding from any of the 3 cities
Click here to reserve your package.
Click here to check details about the package.
Note: In the links above do not get confused if the title of the page is given as from Vadodara/from Ahmedabad/from Surat. The details regarding the package and price remain the same irrespective of the start and end location.
How to commute within the Statue of Unity premises?
Statue of Unity(SoU) is an EV(electric vehicle) zone. Unless you have your own EV, you will have to board SoU buses or SoU’s pink coloured electric auto-rickshaws run by the local women to commute between different view/activity points.
Where to book tickets?
Statue of Unity and entry to various view/activity points can only be booked online through their official website post-Covid.
Click here to book tickets.
There 4 different types of tickets just for entering the premises of the statue
| Ticket Type | Price (Adult – A, Child – C) | Includes |
| SoU Entry Ticket | (A)Rs. 150/- (C)Rs. 90/- | Access to go till Sardar Patel’s feet + museum + laser show + valley of flowers + shuttle buses + Sardar Sarovar viewpoint + laser show (NOT allowed to Viewing Gallery) |
| SoU Viewing Gallery | (A)Rs. 380/- (C)Rs. 230/- | Viewing Gallery + above |
| SoU Express Entry | (A)Rs. 1030/- (C)Rs. 1030/- | Viewing Gallery + above |
| SoU Foreigner VG | (A)Rs. 1530/- (C)Rs. 830/- | Viewing Gallery + above |
Tickets for all other attractions also must be booked on the same official portal.
Tip: If you are planning to visit on a weekend it is better to take SoU Express Entry (Indian) / SoU Foreigner VG (Foreigner) to skip queues.
Where to stay?
Statue of Unity team offer many stay options themselves and there are many hotels that have come up in that area because of the increase in tourism. Narmada Tent City is the most popular stay, and it is a bit on the expensive end. You can check out more stay options provided by SoU here.
Note: I didn’t have an overnight stay at SoU. I commuted by car from Vadodara and I was back home for the night 🙂
In case you had started from Vadodara then you can come back for the night since there are umpteen number of buses and trains.
Where to have food?
You will get vegetarian food in and around the SoU premises. I had my breakfast in a food court within the statue premises and lunch at the Amul parlour in Shreshta Bhavan premises before my cruise ride.
Similar to ‘Statue of Unity – Travel Guide to the World’s Tallest Statue’, click here to read my blog posts from Kashmir.
Five Zones of the Statue of Unity
Zone 1
Includes the memorial gardens and the interactive museum where you can learn a lot about the man himself, Sardar Patel’s role in uniting India and India’s freedom struggle.
Zone 2
Includes the area between Sardar Patel’s feet till thighs.
Zone 3
The area between Sardar Patel’s thighs to chest. The viewing gallery is present at 153m from the ground and at his chest. The view from the gallery of River Narmada and the SoU premises gave me goosebumps 🙂
Zone 4
The area between his chest and shoulders lies here. Tourists are not allowed in this zone.
Zone 5
Includes shoulder and head portion of the statue.
Attractions around Sardar Patel’s statue
There are many attractions around the statue and if you want to visit every attraction then you would need at least 2 days.
The attractions that I visited in a day
- Vishwa Van – a place that houses herbs, shrubs and trees native to all 7 continents and you also get a view of the statue from the side
- Valley of flowers (not worth it)
- Butterfly park (not worth it)
- Jungle Safari (includes aviary) – They had exotic animal and birds. The aviary was massive and I was amazed to see birds flying in flocks within it. I had a lovely time here
- Ekta Cruise – This was the best of all attractions according to me
- Laser Show – 15 mins of fun
- Sardar Sarovar Dam – The music and the colours of the dam after sunset is not to be missed
- Glow Garden – The garden was literally glowing after the sunset
Other attractions apart from the above
- Narmada Ghat Aarti
- Zarwani waterfalls
- River rafting at Khalwani
- Ekta dinner cruise
- River front cycling
- Sardar Sarovar Nauka Vihar (Boating)
- Khalwani to Zarvani Eco Tourism Bus Tour
- Ekta Tribal Cafe at Ekta Nursery – Tribal Thali/Ekta Thali – I heard from a friend that this is not worth it
- Ekta mall
- Pet zone
- Cactus garden
- Arogya van
- Children’s nutrition park
Note: There are also cycles available for rent if you want to tour by cycling
Should you know anything else?
- Statue of Unity is closed on Mondays
- Food from outside is not allowed inside the SoU premises
- Laser show happens at the helipad ground after sunset. I had visited in March where the sun had set at 7 pm, followed by the laser show at 7.15 pm but in the winters the laser show starts between 6.15-6.30 pm
- Choose river rafting only if you are planning to stay for a day or if you have nothing else in your agenda apart from the statue. It might be time consuming, and you might miss on the other attractions if you want to do everything in a day
The statue of unity has a very neatly maintained campus. It is currently generating a lot of income in the form of tourism for the government. It has also employed the locals. It is made sure that the story of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (Iron Man of India) is told to the future generations to come.
Similar to my blog post ‘Statue of Unity – Travel Guide to the World’s Tallest Statue’ I have written other itineraries of places in Gujarat. Click here to read.
