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Monumental shift for Tipu Sultan’s armoury

Apart from restoring heritage sites, it’ll make way for Mysore-Bangalore track doubling

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The technology that will be used in shifting Tipu Sultan’s armoury at Srirangapatna to make way for the double railway track connecting Mysore and Bangalore will have a major impact in saving and restoring many heritage monuments in India, according to Ashwath Narayan, consulting engineer and advisor to the Institute of Engineers, who will be taking up the project.

“If this is a successful operation, it will have tremendous impact on India, which has large number of monuments  that need to be preserved. It is especially important in places where the monuments are located near riverbanks and face the threat of floods. By shifting them to areas further away from the water, we could save them,” he said.

The technology used in shifting the armoury has not been tried in a large scale anywhere in India. In Egypt, the Abu Simbel Temple, a rock monument, was moved when Aswan Dam was constructed. It was moved 200 metres by cutting the monument into two and shifting it over a railway line. In Germany, a church was moved in 2007 to make way for a coal mine. The church weighed 660 tonnes.

“We will suggest two plans. Our first preference is to shift the structure in its entirety and relocate it to the new site, 100 metres away,” said Narayan.

The building weighs 900 tonnes, excluding the foundation.He, however, said the foundation will not be shifted.

The structure will be lifted using jacks. “We have jacks that can lift up to a 100 to 200 tonnes and by using 10 to 20 jacks we can do this. The structure will then be shifted to a trolley, and then relocated to the new site.” He said that the structure may have to be packed in steel plates temporarily for protection.

Considering that the method has been tested abroad, there is likelihood of asking a few experts for suggestions during the course of the project.

The second option is to cut the monument into smaller pieces, number them sequentially and assemble them at the new site and put them together.

“This option has more risks, considering the building is made up of bricks and lime mortar. The risks of the building falling apart are high,” he said, adding that if it were made of stone, the method could have been more viable.

Before submitting the report to the government, a GPR (ground penetration radar) needs to be done.

 “The GPR will help us find out what is underneath the building without excavating. The monument itself is 10 feet into the ground. If there is anything below the ground level of the monument, that too needs to be protected,” he said.

He pointed out that there have been reports of rockets being stored here and even former president APJ Abdul Kalam has shown interest in this.

“The results of the GPR will tell us how to go about relocating the armoury, without destroying  them.”

He added that the report will be ready by January-end,  and the final report will be submitted to the government. “The cost of the project will not be less than `12 crore to `15 crore,” he said, which is being borne by the Railways as well as the state government in a 50:50 sharing basis. Once we have the approval of the government, the relocation of the armoury will take about six to nine months.

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