US equipment brought in to relocate Tipu armoury

The stage is set for relocating the 18th-century armoury of Tipu Sultan in Srirangapatna. The equipment for lifting the armoury, weighing around 1,000 tonnes, have arrived from the United States at the monument site.

The translocation of the armoury has been pending for nearly five years due to various reasons. Contract for this sensitive but challenging work has been awarded to PSL-Wolfe Private Limited, a joint venture company.

Massive containers carrying several hydraulic jacks and other equipment, which arrived last week from the US at the Chennai port, landed in Srirangapatna on Wednesday.

The mechanism to be adopted for lifting the armoury as a single unit from the ground level is simple–insert the jacks below the building in a unified manner
and operate them simultaneously. This would lift the structure and later it would be located 100 metres away from the existing spot. This is the first time such an exercise is being taken up in India, according to sources in the Railways.

The shifting of the historic structure would help the Railways to complete the long-pending 13-km single-line track into a double line, which is part of the Bengaluru-Mysuru track-doubling. The armoury at the Srirangapatna railway station poses a hurdle to the alignment of a new track. The Railways is spending about Rs 13.5 crore to relocate the structure.

M K S Mukat Sharma, Director of the project and representative of the JVC, said the relocation of the monument would take place once the monsoon period ends.

“The translocation of the armoury would not require more than a week’s time. But the pre-move activities will go on for about 40 days. We will wait for the monsoon rains to subside. Maybe by November 15, the relocation will be completed,” Sharma said.

He said translocation of structures using the Unified Jacking System are done in the US and the UK, but not in India. This is the first time such an exercise is being carried out here.

A team of 25 to 30 engineers and labourers will be involved in shifting the armoury with US equipment. A technical team will soon arrive from America, he added.

Railway officials said that till the rainy season is over, the existing structure would not be touched.

This is to avoid wet land and skidding. As per the weather forecast, October is the peak season for rains in Srirangapatna. Not less than 160mm rains are expected. Hence, no risk would be taken to touch the structure till November, the officials said.

The length of the pending doubling of the track in Srirangapatna is about 1.7 km. By completing the doubling work, another five minutes of travelling time between Bengaluru and Mysuru could be saved. As the doubling of the track between the two cities has been almost completed, the travel duration has reduced by 15 to 20 minutes, the sources said.