E-Paper
₹2.5 lakh spent on relocating Patton tank to Bharat Nagar Chowk: Ludhiana MC
The Ludhiana Municipal Corporation (MC) recently relocated the historic Patton tank captured during the 1965 war from Rose Garden back to its original 1980s location at Bharat Nagar Chowk.
It cost the municipal corporation nearly ₹89,000 per kilometre to shift the historic Patton tank back to Bharat Nagar Chowk, with ₹2.5 lakh spent on transporting it over a distance of 2.8 km from Rose Garden, civic body officials said.
The tank, captured during the 1965 Indo-Pak war by Maha Vir Chakra awardee Major Bhupinder Singh, was moved on Monday night and reinstated at its original location after nearly three decades. The four-hour operation involved three cranes and a trailer.
The MC has allocated ₹14.86 lakh for shifting and allied works, including tiling and development of the memorial. The project will cover marble cladding of the base, along with lighting and landscaping.
The restoration follows sustained demands by residents and the Public Action Committee (PAC), who had opposed the installation of other structures at the chowk while the war memorial remained displaced.
The statue of 1965 war hero martyr Major Bhupinder Singh was first installed at the Bharat Nagar Chowk in 1980–81 but was shifted in 1995 for installation of floodlights. It was relocated again in 2021–22 to facilitate construction of the elevated road on Ferozepur Road, after which it remained near the Rose Garden.
The chowk had recently been adopted by Hero Cycles for maintenance.
Major Bhupinder Singh, a native of Harnampura village in Ludhiana, was honoured with the Maha Vir Chakra for his bravery during the 1965 war.
