The Central Public Works Department (CPWD) has cancelled its plans to project multi-coloured lights on India Gate in the face of opposition from the Ministry of Defence, according to sources privy to the extensive Republic Day celebrations planned in the national Capital.
“India Gate is a war memorial for the fallen soldiers. It is not for entertainment. So it is not appropriate to project coloured lights and images on the façade,” a defence officer with knowledge of the matter told The Hindu. The CPWD will now use only white light.
The government had issued an order to install Dynamic Façade Lighting all along from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate and accordingly all Ministries in the path have been illuminated with multi-coloured lights recently. “No one conveyed the higher-ups that the same cannot be done on India Gate,” the officer observed.
PMO order
A section in the Ministry conveyed their objections to the authority responsible for approving the file. However, while it was verbally conveyed to the CPWD to use white or yellow light, approval was granted without putting that on paper. “Because the order was from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) it was approved,” another official said.
When contacted a spokesperson from the Urban Development Ministry said there was no dispute over the matter and said, “CPWD needed a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) and they got it”. Subsequently, sections in the Defence Ministry reiterated their objections both in the Ministry and to the CPWD to give an undertaking that no multi-coloured lights would be used. It was learnt that the matter was resolved with the CPWD agreeing to the concerns. The Dynamic Façade Lighting of India Gate was inaugurated by Lt-Governor Anil Baijal on Wednesday.
“A total of 130 RGB narrow/wide beam energy efficient LED fittings with computerised control, have been installed for Dynamic Façade Lighting due to which there is 75% energy saving as compared to earlier conventional light fittings. The life of this light fittings is about one lakh burning hours,” a government release said.
This is not the first time this issue cropped up. In October 2015, during the India-Africa summit, there were similar attempts by the Ministry of External Affairs to project laser images on India Gate which was objected to by Defence Ministry and the Delhi chapter of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). The PMO had initially overruled the objections but later shelved the proposal.
Tourism Ministry too had in the past shelved a similar project for 3D projections. However, India Gate has been used to mount visual projections of several campaigns of the government like ‘End Polio Now’ and ‘Clean India’.
