At 418 feet, tallest Tricolour hoisted at Attari border

Tribune News Service

GS Paul

Amritsar, October 19

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari unfurled the country’s tallest flag near spectators’ gallery at the Attari-Wagah Joint Check Post today.

The NHAI had undertaken the task of setting up a 418-foot-tall National Flag at Attari. Gadkari, CM Bhagwant Mann and MP Gurjeet Aujla jointly unfurled the National Flag.

Earlier, the Tricolour at 360-foot height was installed at the check post in March 2017. In an apparent ‘flag war’, Pakistan hoisted a taller flag at 400 feet in August the same year.

The new flag mast is 18 feet taller than the Pakistani Parcham-e-Sitarah-o-Hilal on the Wagah side.

Gadkari said, “I see it as a red letter day in my life to inaugurate the most wonderful project. The NHAI has done a great job. The mast has special provision of surveillance which will enable Border Security Force (BSF) jawans to have a hawk’s eye on the other side of the border,” he said.

Aujla said the project cost around Rs 8 crore and the cloth of the flag had been made of a mixture of satin and cotton so that it should have better capability to bear the brunt of adverse weather conditions.

“The pole mast has stairs inside, in addition to a hydraulic lift outside. This will enable two BSF jawans to go atop the flag mast,” said Aujla.

After paying obeisance at Golden Temple, he also inspected the ongoing project of the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Greenfield Expressway (DAK) and Amritsar Bypass.

After reviewing the DAK project, Gadkari asked Mann to expedite the process of land acquisition to avoid any delay.

This 669-km expressway is being built at a cost of Rs 40,000 crore. Once completed, one can reach Amritsar from Delhi in 4 hours and Katra from Delhi in 6 hours. The distance from Delhi to Katra is 727 km. With the construction of this route, the distance will be reduced by 58 km.

Starting from the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway (KMP) in Delhi, this expressway in Punjab is 399 km, of which work has started on a stretch of 296 km. It will pass through Patiala, Sangrur, Malerkotla, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Gurudaspur.

A major feature of this corridor includes Asia’s longest 1,300-metre long cable-stayed bridge over the Beas in Amritsar district.

Gadkari visits Golden Temple

• Union Minister Nitin Gadkari paid obeisance at Golden Temple
• He also inspected the ongoing project on the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Greenfield Expressway and Amritsar Bypass
• Gadkari asked CM Bhagwant Mann to expedite the process of land acquisition for the project to avoid any delay

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