Year after opening, war memorial nears completion

Divya Sharma

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 23

A year after its inauguration, the Punjab State War Heroes’ Memorial and Museum is set to come up with its ninth and last gallery. The gallery, which will have artefacts from all three defence forces, will aim at motivating the youth.

The museum, inaugurated with just one gallery, is among the top tourist spots in the holy city.

It now has six operational galleries highlighting the Anglo-Sikh wars and the Sikh empire, including the era of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. While the work on two galleries is nearing completion, the ninth gallery will come up around a 45-m-high sword of steel.

A team from the memorial is already on the job to collect artifacts from the families of warriors to be displayed at the ninth gallery.

All these galleries are interconnected and display a number of historical and war-related materials with brilliant sound affects. The war memorial was constructed at a cost of Rs 100 crore and is spread over 7 acres on the Amritsar-Attari road. Adding life to the entire place are war tanks and a special black panel on the Saragarhi battle. The 7D theatre where audience can feel environmental effects such as smoke, storm, wind, rain, snow and fire is attracting a lot of visitors.

Govind, a tourist from Jodhpur said: “It is a unique experience. This is the first time I am visiting a war memorial and I am impressed.”

The place also touches the history of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa and the lives of people in one of its galleries. “I have seen other memorial too, but this place is unique. It is much more comprehensive,” said Naresh, another tourist.

Brig JS Arora (retd), Director, Defence Services Welfare, said: “We never expected such a good response. People are coming from different places to see this memorial. In the year gone by, we focused on improving the memorial in terms of its facts, enriching the place and maintain its quality in terms of infrastructure. I would even like to invite the families of defence personnel to contribute for our ninth gallery.”

Deputy Commissioner Kamaldeep Singh Sangha termed the place as an inspiration for many.