Work on war memorial soon

Work on the Chandigarh War Memorial, in honour of more than 9,000 martyrs from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh, is likely t...

Work on the Chandigarh War Memorial, in honour of more than 9,000 martyrs from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh, is likely to begin soon. The administration has floated tenders for the project, expected to be finalised this month.

Funds for the memorial, to come up at Bougainvillaea Garden, are being raised by the Citizens’ Committee formed by The Indian Express. The committee had made an initial contribution of Rs 1 lakh. The memorial will be the first of its kind in the honour of martyrs who died defending the country since Independence. It is also the first to be built by civilians.

The foundation stone of the memorial was unveiled by former Punjab Governor and war hero Lt Gen J.F.R. Jacob in April last year. On his initiative, the design of the memorial has been drawn up by two students of the Chandigarh College of Architecture — Shivani Guglani and Nanaki Singh.

President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, while lauding the effort as a ‘noble venture’, had suggested that funds should also be provided for widows and orphans of martyrs. Following the request, editor-in-chief of The Indian Express Shekhar Gupta had announced an additional amount of Rs 57 lakh to be collected to provide such facilities.