Maidan battle tank shifts to new location, Mig-27 to be part of display

KOLKATA: The battle tank that was kept on the maidan close to the east gate of Fort William (facing Park Street) has been shifted to a new location on St George's Gate Road. The tank, a war trophy from the 1971 Indo-Pak War, has been placed on an 'island' between the two flanks of the road close to the head office of the Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners (HRBC).
"We plan to create a tri-services exhibit on the island. We have asked the Indian Air Force (IAF) for the shell of a Mig-27 aircraft and the Navy for an anchor. The tank, aircraft and anchor will be part of an exhibit at the spot. The HRBC has done a wonderful job at developing the island. The aircraft is expected to arrive in the next 10 days,"said Maj Gen Harsh Kakkar, chief of staff, Bengal Area.
The Army wants to put up more exhibits around the city to create awareness about India's military history. Till now, there were two battle tanks in the Maidan area. One is the Chaffee tank that was shifted to St George's Gate Road and the other one is a Vijayanta Tank close to Babughat. The Army has also made plans for proper upkeep of the trophies.
Chaffee tanks were made in the US and used by the Pakistan Army in the 1971 War. At that time, these were considered one of the best light battle tanks in the world. India pitted the indigenous Vijayanta tanks against the Chaffees. The Vijayantas were India's first indigenous tanks built under licence from Vickers, UK.
"The 1971 War was fought from Kolkata but this is a city that doesn’t have sufficient war trophies on display. Other cities have a large number of them. There is need to exhibit more of them in the city. There is sufficient space in the Maidan which is anyways under the control of the Army. This will be the first time that a Mig-27 aircraft will be on display in Kolkata. There are a couple of Mig-21s, one of them inside Nicco Park. The Mig-21s were used in the 1971 War but the Mig-27s came in later and were India's first ground attack aircraft. They will be phased out soon," an officer said.
Officers feel that government offices, educational institutions and even private establishments that have sufficient space should ask for these trophies from the Army and IAF to put up on display.