Nearly 60 years after it was mooted to honour soldiers who were killed post-Independence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the National War Memorial (NWM) near the India Gate complex in New Delhi.

Built at a cost of Rs 176 crore, the main structure of the memorial is a 15.5-m obelisk, an eternal flame and six bronze murals depicting famous battles fought by the Indian Army, Air Force and the Navy in a covered gallery.

In the complex, 16 walls have been constructed for paying homage to the 25,942 battle casualties and their names have been inscribed on granite tablets arranged in a circular pattern, symbolising the ancient Indian war formation Chakravyuh.

The memorial has a layout comprising four concentric circles, namely the Amar Chakra (Circle of Immortality), Veerta Chakra (Circle of Bravery), Tyag Chakra (Circle of Sacrifice) and Rakshak Chakra (Circle of Protection).

The outermost circle - Rakshak Chakra - comprises of rows of more than 600 trees with each tree representing many soldiers who guard the territorial integrity of the nation round the clock.

The memorial complex also comprises graphic panels and stone murals. Busts of the 21 awardees of Param Vir Chakra - India’s highest military honour - have been installed at Param Yodha Sthal.

There was no national memorial to commemorate the sacrifice of fallen soldiers after Independence. The NWM pays tribute to soldiers who laid down their lives defending the nation during the India-China War in 1962, Indo-Pak Wars in 1947, 1965 and 1971 and the Kargil conflict of 1999. It also commemorates the soldiers who participated and made supreme sacrifice in UN Peacekeeping Missions, during Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) Operations, counter-insurgency operations and Low-Intensity Capital Operations (LICO).

The proposal to set up a a National War Memorial was under consideration since early 1970s. A Group of Ministers (GoM) in August 2012 recommended ‘C’ Hexagon of India Gate as the appropriate location for the memorial. The sanction for the project was issued on December 18, 2015, and actual work on it started in February last year.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the inauguration of the National War Memorial is a “landmark event” and the county now has “one more pilgrimage place” where citizens can come to pay homage to our brave soldiers.

The India Gate itself is a war memorial built during the British Raj as the All India War Memorial Arch to honour the soldiers who died in World War I (1914-1918) and the Third Anglo-Afghan War (1919). The landmark has the names of soldiers inscribed on its surface. Officials said the Amar Jawan Jyoti, built in 1972 underneath the India Gate arch in memory of the fallen soldiers of the 1971 war, will remain there, but the NWM will be the place to pay tributes to soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the country.