Site near India Gate identified for national war museum

New Delhi, May 18:

A high-level panel on Wednesday informed the union cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Princess Park Complex, near India Gate here, would be a suitable site for constructing a National War Museum.

The cabinet was apprised of the decision by the Empowered Apex Steering Committee (EASC).

Earlier, in October 2015, the union cabinet had approved the ‘C’ Hexagon of India Gate as the site for the National War Memorial.

The long-delayed national memorial for Indian soldiers, first proposed in the 1960s, was earlier approved by a group of ministers during the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2012, but the plan could not take off.

After coming to power in 2014, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government announced an allocation of Rs.100 crore for a war memorial in the general budget.

In a written reply to a query in the Rajya Sabha in March, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said the “process” for building the museum and memorial has started.

The minister also said that the tentative time-frame for project completion is five years.

A Project Management Team has been constituted for planning and executing the project from conception till completion, under the guidance of the Empowered Apex Steering Committee chaired by the defence secretary. (IANS)