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NEW DELHI: The defence establishment is now scrambling to fast-track the long-pending national war memorial (NWM) to honour the over 22,600 soldiers who have laid down their lives in wars and operations since Independence, with its tentative inauguration by PM Narendra Modi being set for August 15 next year.
The deadline for the completion of the war museum at Princess Park, which will adjoin the NWM at the C Hexagon of the India Gate complex on the majestic Rajpath, in turn, has been set for July 31, 2020. Though the timelines may seem overambitious, officials say the construction of the NWM and museum will be undertaken "on a war-footing" now. The projects, which will cost around Rs 500 crore, will be monitored by an empowered apex steering committee under the defence secretary, with a Lt-General heading the project management team and a Major-General as the "dedicated coordinating officer".
For starters, the MoU for appointing the first prize winners of the two-stage global design competition held last year as consultants for the NWM and museum will be inked on April 1. While architect Yogesh Chandrahasan and his team won the prize for the NWM ($30,000 award money), the Spa Studio View bagged it for the museum ($75,000). This will be followed by the detailed project reports, which will be completed by May for the NWM and December for the museum. The construction contracts, in turn, will be concluded by June this year (for NWM) and February 2018 for the museum.
All this comes 57 years after the NWM was first proposed by the armed forces, which have consistently raised it with successive governments without much success due to politico-bureaucratic apathy. The Army does maintain around 120 regional and individual war memorials but India is probably the world's only major country not to have dedicated NWM.
The NWM will basically be a landscape-type memorial with "retaining walls'', which will have names of all the martyrs inscribed on them. The walls will partly be below ground-level to ensure the aesthetics of the majestic Central Vista are not disrupted, as was earlier reported by TOI. The adjoining museum, in turn, will showcase glorious moments in the military history of India. will, for instance, house the jeepmounted RCL gun used by Havildar Abdul Hamid to destroy at least three Pakistani Patton tanks in the famous battle of Asal Uttar during the 1965 war.
Ironically, India Gate was built by the British to honour the 84,000 Indian soldiers killed fighting for the Empire in World War-I and the Afghan campaign.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...ce-day-2018/articleshow/57833724.cms?from=mdr
The deadline for the completion of the war museum at Princess Park, which will adjoin the NWM at the C Hexagon of the India Gate complex on the majestic Rajpath, in turn, has been set for July 31, 2020. Though the timelines may seem overambitious, officials say the construction of the NWM and museum will be undertaken "on a war-footing" now. The projects, which will cost around Rs 500 crore, will be monitored by an empowered apex steering committee under the defence secretary, with a Lt-General heading the project management team and a Major-General as the "dedicated coordinating officer".
For starters, the MoU for appointing the first prize winners of the two-stage global design competition held last year as consultants for the NWM and museum will be inked on April 1. While architect Yogesh Chandrahasan and his team won the prize for the NWM ($30,000 award money), the Spa Studio View bagged it for the museum ($75,000). This will be followed by the detailed project reports, which will be completed by May for the NWM and December for the museum. The construction contracts, in turn, will be concluded by June this year (for NWM) and February 2018 for the museum.
All this comes 57 years after the NWM was first proposed by the armed forces, which have consistently raised it with successive governments without much success due to politico-bureaucratic apathy. The Army does maintain around 120 regional and individual war memorials but India is probably the world's only major country not to have dedicated NWM.
The NWM will basically be a landscape-type memorial with "retaining walls'', which will have names of all the martyrs inscribed on them. The walls will partly be below ground-level to ensure the aesthetics of the majestic Central Vista are not disrupted, as was earlier reported by TOI. The adjoining museum, in turn, will showcase glorious moments in the military history of India. will, for instance, house the jeepmounted RCL gun used by Havildar Abdul Hamid to destroy at least three Pakistani Patton tanks in the famous battle of Asal Uttar during the 1965 war.
Ironically, India Gate was built by the British to honour the 84,000 Indian soldiers killed fighting for the Empire in World War-I and the Afghan campaign.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...ce-day-2018/articleshow/57833724.cms?from=mdr
