London: One of London's newer landmarks, the Arcelor Mittal Orbit designed by British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor to mark the 2012 Olympic Games in the city, is losing nearly 10,000 pounds a week as tourist numbers fall short of expectations. The so-called "curly-wurly" was built with the help of 16 million pounds from London-based NRI steel magnate Lakshmi N Mittal.
It has now emerged that the ArcelorMittal Orbit in east London, named after its chief benefactor, lost a total of 520,000 pounds last year despite a profit of almost 1.2 million pounds being forecast in its business plan, the 'Evening Standard' reported.
The tower is constructed from 2,000 tonnes of steel and is 114.5 meters high, making it the world's tallest sculpture. Among latest plans to boost visitor numbers was the announcement of a new giant slide, set to be open to the public by next year.
The slide will be 180 meters long and will cost just 5 pounds to ride. It will be suspended 76 meters above the ground and wrapped around the red metal frame of the tower. It will circle around the tower five times before finishing with a 50-metre straight run to the ground.
Sliders will hit speeds of 15mph during their descent, which is expected to last about 40 seconds. Peter Tudor, director of visitor services at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, said: "What more exciting way to descend the ArcelorMittal Orbit than on the world's longest and tallest tunnel slide. "This slide really will give a different perspective of Britain's tallest sculpture. We are committed to ensuring our visitors have the best possible day out every time they visit, and as with all our venues, we are constantly exploring ways to ensure we lead the way with the latest visitor experience."
London's Olympics legacy committee had reduced its annual visitor forecasts for the Orbit from 350,000 to 150,000, with the latest figures showing just 124,000 visits were made in the year up to March 2015.
