UT admin to complete martyrs’ memorial at Chandigarh Capitol Complex

The UT administration has decided to fulfil the pending task of Swiss-French architect, Le Corbusier, and to construct a memorial at the UNESCO protected site in Chandigarh Capitol Complex for martyrs who laid their lives during the freedom struggle of India.

A place is already earmarked and dedicated for the memorial, which was part of the original plan of the Capitol Complex, along with Open Hand, Geometric Hill and Tower of Shadow.

A committee constituted for the construction of the monument has decided that the monument for martyrs will be made with pink stone. The committee members recently visited the famous Bayana town in Bharatpur district, Rajasthan, to check the quality of pink stones.

As per records, the construction work for the monument has been pending since 1973. The committee —comprising Director Cultural Department, Sorabh Kumar Arora, Rajiv Mehta of Chandigarh Architect Department and others, was constituted by former UT Adviser Manoj Parida after receiving a go ahead from Administrator VP Singh Badnore.

Committee member Sorabh Kumar Arora said, “The work for the construction of the Martyrs’ Monument was started in 1973 but it was never completed. That work was undertaken by the famous sculptor, Sanko Chaudhuri. The administration has now decided to take over and finish the construction of the monument. Our team members have already visited Bayana in Rajasthan for pink stones. The work will be allotted to a firm on a tender basis. The tenders will be released shortly. Officials from the Chandigarh Architecture Department will supervise the work. The heritage status of the Capitol Complex will not be hampered in any way.”

“A few components of the memorial had been designed and stored by the original architects. These include a lion and a serpent. Some of the other components that we will make include a column, which will describe the decline of the British Era, and a horizontally open hand monument that will depict the agony of martyrs. The administration will complete this pending work,” Deepika Gandhi, Director of Le Corbusier Centre, Sector 19, said.

The memorial will be constructed near the ramp of Capitol Complex. A scale model of the memorial was prepared for better understanding. The model was cleared by a sub-committee. The UT Heritage Committee has approved the construction of the memorial.

Sources said it is yet to be decided what will be inscribed on the martyrs’ memorial. After the sculptor Sanko Chaudhuri, famous sculptor BN Chugh had also worked on making the memorial, but work could not be completed. Chandigarh Capitol Complex was given the status of World Heritage Site in July, 2016.