National Military Memorial in Bangalore to miss January 26 target

The wait for the National Military Memorial just got a tad longer. With about 70% of ground work yet to be finished, it seems it will take another year for the memorial to be completed. However, Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) officials maintain that the main building will be completed by January 26, 2011; but the rest is likely to be finished not before March 2011.

The memorial was earlier scheduled to be inaugurated on Wednesday, on the occasion of Vijay Diwas, but the work was delayed due to court cases and contractual delays. Few ex-servicemen felt the delayed was due to snail-paced tendering work, lack of coordination between departments, inadequate contractors and lack of funds.

A BDA official said that 30% work has been completed, which includes, digging for Motivation Hall, partial roof cast and walls. It will take two months to bring and station the Veeragallu (hero’s stone) here. Notwithstanding the delay, ex-servicemen are happy that the memorial is moving towards becoming a reality.
Lt Col (Retd) GV Sreedhar said, “Since everything is new, there is no model to replicate and convince the people. Also, there is a lack of coordination between the various civic agencies.”

He said the delays had pushed up the project cost from Rs4crore to Rs12 crore. “Now we need an additional `4crore to complete remaining works like bringing electronic war streams, war machines, war models, tanks, destroyers, sappers, guns and small arms for children to use and learn. We will write to the chief minister requesting for more funds. We are also requesting the state government to write to the defence ministry to provide material for the Motivation Hall, which includes a 200-foot-long ship, tankers, MiG-23 and 27.”

Sreedhar added that the project was delayed due to the two by-elections, during which no tenders could be called for. Besides, the committee, including convenor Rajeev Chandrashekar and principal secretaries, had not met in six months.