Award-winning Mumbai-born sculptor Anish Kapoor has opened the world's tallest and longest tunnel slide on the ArcelorMittal Orbit.
The 61-year-old London-based artist sounded reluctant about the idea of his 114-metre-high steel creation to mark the 2012 London Olympics being converted into a slide measuring 178m in length and 76m in height.
"The mayor foisted this on the project and there was a moment where I had to make a decision - do I go to battle with the mayor (Boris Johnson) or is there a more elegant or astute way through this," he told reporters.
The sculpture in the Olympic Park in north London itself costs £19 million, £16 million of which was paid for by Lakshmi N Mittal's steel company ArcelorMittal, and the remaining £3 million by the UK government. It was expected to attract thousands of tourists and bring in annual revenues of £1.2 million from ticket sales but lost as much as £10,000 a week in 2014.
