By IANS,
Chandigarh : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the landmark Khalsa Heritage Complex (KHC), touted as a landmark monument of Sikhism, at Anandpur Sahib town in Punjab next month.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal told reporters at Nurpur Bedi, 65 km from here, Saturday that the KHC will be inaugurated by the prime minister anytime between Nov 15 to 25.
Manmohan Singh, a Sikh himself, has agreed “in principle” to a request by the chief minister to inaugurate the KHC at Anandpur Sahib, 80 km from here, when the latter called on him in New Delhi earlier in October.
The Rs.275 crore project, announced in April 1999, was originally expected to be completed by September 2004 to coincide with the celebrations of the 400th year of the Golden Temple, but the completion deadline was pushed back several times.
In December last year, the Punjab government set the “final” deadline for July 30 but even that was missed by the authorities.
Boston-based internationally acclaimed Israeli-architect Moshe Safdie has designed the complex, which is shaped like open hands offering prayers. The monument is termed as a “wonder in the making” and something that has no comparison in the country.
Being built on a 100-acre site, the KHC is to stand at a site that is the birth place of the ‘Khalsa Panth’, the present day Sikh religion. The second holiest Sikh shrine, Takht Keshgarh Sahib, is located there as well.