The Beant Singh Memorial Complex can now breathe a sigh of relief as the UT Administrator and the Governor Punjab, Gen S F Rodrigues (retd), has directed the Punjab government and the UT Administration in no uncertain terms that the work on the complex has to be completed in the next six months. Incidentally, the Punjab government still has to pay its share of the expenditure for the construction.

The officials in the UT Administration, which is executing the project, appear hopeful of completing the work on the memorial this time, especially after Punjab Chief Minister Punjab Parkash Singh Badal assured that the grant of Rs 4 crore, unreleased by the state government till date, would finally be made available.

"The Administrator has directed both Punjab and UT to finish the work in six months. This time it appears likely that the pending work would finally be over," said a senior UT official just after attending a meeting of the governing body of Beant Singh Memorial Complex a few days ago.

The total cost of the project, set up on about seven acres of land in Sector 42, Chandigarh, is now estimated at around Rs 25 crore - almost twice of what it began with a decade ago. Initially, the Punjab was to contribute Rs 10 crore to the project while the UT was to pool in Rs 2 crore, however, Punjab has contributed only Rs 6 crore till now while the UT has put in Rs 11 crore. With Punjab not releasing any more grants, the project struck a dead-end.

The main components of the first phase of the memorial complex are a four-storey library, an auditorium and a multimedia centre.