Decades-old Secunderabad war memorial set to move for elevated corridor

A decades-old World War II memorial near Parade Ground in Secunderabad is set to be relocated to make way for an elevated corridor from Gymkhana Grounds to Shamirpet. The SCB approved the move, while HMDA plans a replica at the new location

Hyderabad: A decades-old World War II memorial on General Choudhary Road near Parade Ground in Secunderabad Cantonment is set to be relocated to make way for an elevated corridor from Gymkhana Grounds to Outer Ring Road Shamirpet on State Highway-1, Rajiv Rahdari.

The Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) approved the shifting of the war memorial at a board meeting chaired by Brigadier S Rajeev on October 6. Demarcation for relocating the memorial to facilitate the elevated corridor was completed during the BRS regime in 2018, and the Congress government has now moved ahead with the relocation.

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The war memorial is located on the right side of the road from Tivoli Junction to Gymkhana Ground X Road. According to city-based historians, the 20-foot-tall monument was erected to pay tribute to soldiers from the erstwhile Hyderabad State who sacrificed their lives during World War II.

A bronze inscription in Kannada, Telugu, Marathi and English, reflecting the diverse sociolinguistic composition of the Nizam’s Hyderabad State forces, was stolen by unidentified persons. The theft has made it difficult to determine exactly what was inscribed on the war memorial.

The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) engineering wing approached the SCB in March 2026 seeking the Cantonment Board’s intervention to shift the war memorial, located on 5,800 sq ft of Class C cantonment land.

J Rama Krishna, who filed a PIL in the High Court, told Telangana Today that he had urged SCB authorities to relocate the war memorial, arguing that it qualified as a heritage structure requiring preservation for historical and cultural purposes and should not otherwise be disturbed.

The SCB agenda for the board meeting stated that the High Court had dismissed the PIL and entrusted the SCB with shifting the war memorial in coordination with the HMDA without disturbing it and while following all safety measures.

HMDA is awaiting location clearance from the SCB to shift the war memorial, sources said. Once the location is finalised, HMDA plans to construct a replica of the memorial with modern features at the new site instead of shifting the original structure, sources said.