India on March 5 hoisted, what is being touted as the tallest national flag across the Atari-Wagah border. The flag can also be apparently seen from Lahore. The flag is 120 feet in length, 80 feet in breadth and stands on a 360 feet tall pole and has been placed at the Indo-Pak checkpost in Punjab.
The new flag that reportedly weighs 55 tonnes, was hoisted by BJP leader Anil Joshi and local bodies minister of Punjab. The Punjab government has reportedly spent a whopping Rs 3.5 crore on this entire project.The BSF also took to Twitter to share the pictures of the flag hoisting while adding that it was the highest flagpost.
5th March ’17#Nationalflag on highest flagpost at Atari -Wagha border #Amritsar inaugurated today, adding more attraction for visitors pic.twitter.com/NEUjRMX4OU
— BSF (@BSF_India) March 5, 2017
The Punjab government has also assigned the responsibility of maintaining the new flag to a private on the basis of a contract of three years. However, according to several media reports, Pakistan is not very excited about this new development. Reports suggest that the Pakistan has opposed the posting the flag on the border and have asked the BSF forces to place it away from the border. Even though Pakistan has claimed that India was violating the treaty, Indian authorities have affirmed that the country was not violating any norm and were installing the flag away from the zero line. Pakistan is reportedly worried about the possibilities of India installing cameras on the pole for spying purpose.
Before this, the tallest Indian flag with 293-feet flagpole was hoisted in Ranchi district of Jharkhand in the year, 2016.
