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Massive tricolour hosted at Kargil war memorial

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Press Trust of India Drass (Jammu and Kashmir)
Last Updated : Jan 20 2013 | 4:33 AM IST

The flag is 37 and a half feet in length, 25 feet in width and weighs 15 kilograms, Chief Executive Officer of National Flag Foundation of India Commander (retired) K V Singh told PTI.

Singh said the flag hoisted at the Kargil war memorial here at Drass, 150 kilometers from Srinagar, is "more than double in dimensions" than the ones which are hoisted over Red Fort and Parliament house in New Delhi.

The flag was hoisted over a specially built pole which is three tons in weight, 101 feet tall and 15 feet below the ground.

Singh, a retired naval commander, who manages the affairs of the foundation which presented the flag to the Army unit here, said the idea is to "promote the national flag by making them monumental".

The flag, made of knitted polyester, was hoisted by the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Army's Northern Command Lt Gen K T Parnaik and Member of Parliament Naveen Jindal, who heads the flag foundation.

"It is a very significant occasion for us today because we are celebrating the victory day of the Kargil war...And on this very pious occasion Shri Jindal has gifted us this wonderful flag of ours. It is a huge flag which will flutter here 24 cross seven," Lt Gen Parnaik told reporters at the war memorial.

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Jindal, who heads the non-profit flag foundation, said the aim of installing these "monumental" flags and flag poles is to "popularise" the national flag.

"We are feeling proud by presenting the tricolour in the form of a monument. This flag, which is fluttering in front of us, is our national pride," Jindal said.

Army today began the two day commemoration of the 13th anniversary of its victory in the 1999 Kargil war.

Kargil War, which began in May 1999, lasted more than two months before Pakistan soldiers, a bulk of them drawn from its Northern Light Infantry, and irregulars withdrew from the mountain tops it had occupied overlooking the Srinagar-Leh highway.

  

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First Published: Jul 25 2012 | 3:05 PM IST

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