Tipu's armoury moves 20 metres towards its new location

A team of technicians, including experts from the US, were successful in moving Tipu Sultan’s 18th century armoury by 20 metres from its original position on Monday.

The armoury had become a hurdle in the work on the Bengaluru-Mysuru railway double track. So, it was decided to move the structure 100 metres from the original place.

Technicians of both the firms, in the presence of top officials of the Railways, started the work at 9 am. Five iron beams brought from Jabalpur, 11 cross beams, nine roll beams, 37 jacks, 12 push rams and an imported unified jacking machine were used to relocate the structure by rolling it.

The 12x9-metre armoury is likely to be moved to its new location by Tuesday evening.
It would take two months to separate the structure from the iron poles and rollers and place it on the ground, say experts. A cemented platform has been laid to place the historical structure on it, said Ravichandran, deputy chief engineer, Railways.

Around six technicians from the US company, 20 Indian technicians and 20 railway department employees are engaged in the work for the past one and a half months.

Ashok Gupta, chief executive officer of South Western Railway, PSL representative Mukat Sharma and James Buckingham of Wolfe company supervised the operation.