Sukhbir unveils heritage street, plaza to media in Amritsar

As all’s set for the inauguration of the stretch from Town Hall to Golden Temple in its beautified ‘heritage look’ on Tuesday, Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal unveiled the spruced-up street and the Plaza to the media here on Monday evening.

Sukhbir led the scribes to show galleries that will take the pilgrims through the history of Golden Temple and stream live the rituals inside the shrine through country’s first 3D-printed models.

As around 40,000 pilgrims will visit the galleries daily, a narrative-based multimedia interpretation centre built at a cost of Rs 50 crore in the basement of the Plaza will brief the visitors about the Sikh religion and its humanitarian philosophy.

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The first gallery narrates through projections and laser images how Sikhism took birth and transformed from the time of Guru Nanak Dev to Guru Gobind Singh.

Another gallery features a 3D model of the Golden Temple and its precincts. The visitors will get to see live the activities going on inside the shrine on large overhead screens.

The last gallery has holographic and video projections, along with reproduced, artistic interiors of the Golden Temple on its walls, and narrates the philosophy and wisdom of Sikhism.

As the deputy CM guided the mediapersons around, they were mesmerised with the look of the area under fancy lights. The road displays art and heritage of Punjab. There is statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, artificially-lit flame outside Jallianwala Bagh, statue of Dr BR Ambedkar and more.

Earlier, Sukhbir inaugurated the entry gate—a domed structure supported on four cusped arches resting on four piers in each corner— built at a cost of Rs 9.5 crore.

The ‘Heritage Stretch’ and the Plaza basement will be inaugurated by the chief minister on Tuesday.

Inner streets to have heritage look too

The stretch from Town Hall to Golden Temple that has been beautified at a cost of Rs 160 crore in the first phase of the project. Sukhbir said in the second phase, all streets leading to Darbar Sahib will be given a heritage look.

He also announced that in the next five years, the whole city will be given a facelift to give it a heritage look.

‘Facade of buildings can’t be changed’

The deputy chief minister said a special committee has been formed for the upkeep of the stretch with a dedicated fund of Rs 30 crore. As the entire stretch has a uniform heritage look, Sukhbir said nobody can change the facade of the buildings.

“This stretch is not under the MC and the committee will look after the cleaning and upkeep of structures in this area,” he said.