Mysuru: Railways with the help of US based Wolfe and New Delhi based PSL Engineering created a record of sorts by successfully physically relocating 1000 tonne Tipu Armoury to its new place which is nearly 130 mtr from its previous location.
Though the initial work of shifting Tipu Armory started on October 2014 itself, it gained momentum from January this year, that is, after the experts from America and Delhi based firms joined the team and fixed the beams. The physical shifting of Tipu Armoury started from Monday. On day one it was moved by 40mtrs, 42mtrs more on Tuesday, 18mtrs from there on Wednesday and on Thursday there was no shifting as there was lot of ground work required to shift the armoury in another direction while on Friday by around 4.40 pm the experts were successful in shifting the armoury by 30 mtrs more to the place earmarked to install the monument. Overall the experts managed to physically shift the armoury by 130 mtr to the new location (100mtr one direction, 30 mtr other direction).
With the this shifting, the 1.7 Km stretch of doubling work near Kaveri Bridge at Srirangapatna, which was pending due to the location of Tipu’s Armoury right in the way of proposed alignment of double track, will soon be taken up and completed. With the completion of doubling of this stretch, the entire Mysuru-Bengaluru line will become double line. This is made possible as the Tipu’s Armoury, the masonry structure weighing nearly 1000 tonnes has been shifted using international expertise well beyond the limit required for the second line. The entire cost of Rs 12.5 Crore for shifting Tipu Armory was borne by Railways.
Speaking after inspecting the shifting of Tipu Armoury works, A K Gupta, General Manager, South Western Railway said, “It’s a unique work undertaken in India and for successfully shifting the armoury, I congratulate the entire team including experts from America, Indian counterpart and railway authorities. Once the stretch that is 1.5 km is completed which is expected to be by April end, commissioner of safety will inspect and give his approval. Once the inspection is done the 1.5 km stretch will be functional latest by May 15.” He also mentioned that, from the new place where the Tipu Armoury is placed, apart from the proposed double lines, there is sufficient place for two more lines.
K Ravichandran, Deputy Chief Engineer, Construction, Mysuru said, “Due to overall team effort and God’s grace we managed to successfully shift the ancient monument by 130 mtr. Though we have managed to shift the armoury to a new location still lot of work is there. Now we will start removing the jacks one by one which is just the reverse of what we have done to shift the armoury. Until and unless the monument stands on its own we can’t relax. To get work completely done it may take another one month’s time. We will also be constructing compound wall for the monument. All together it may take two months’ time. Once these works are completed we can throw it open for public.”
Assistant Executive Engineer Keshavamurthy and Junior Engineer Jisna too worked hard for the successful shifting of the monument. Jisna, who is a railway employee for the past three years was the site supervisor in this project. She even started her career including training at this very site.
This being a unique work executed for the first time in India, initially no agency was readily available and the methodology for the shifting was also not known. Construction organisation of South Western Railway had engaged Institution of Engineers (India) for providing consultancy services which had submitted its report. In addition, Railways, also had taken the available literature from internet and interacted through email, Phone with the USA agencies who were executing similar shifting/translocation works. One of the interested working agencies had arranged a private visit of the “Expert House Movers”,USA to the monument to discuss ideas with them.
When the tender for the work was invited for first time there was no response, but during the second time the agencies abroad (with experience of translocation of buildings) also participated in the process. The work was awarded to PSL Engineering (India based) – Wolfe (USA based) (Joint Venture).
Cash award for railway employees:
The General Manager who was very impressed with the ongoing shifting work of Tipu Armoury awarded cash of Rs 50,000 to Mysuru Construction Department.
