by Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD

No, I’m not talking about the hanging of Yakub Memon as you may be inclined to think from the title. It is pointless to dig up the graves of those who are very dead. But nevertheless, many will be doing it for some time to come. I’m talking of something much closer home although this is also about digging up something from the past. It has now been announced that the more than two-centuries old Armoury of Tipu Sultan, which has become an impediment to the Mysuru-Bengaluru Railway line doubling project, will finally be shifted to a different site about 500 meters away from where it stands now, although its new location is as yet unannounced.

This matter has been under consideration for quite some time now and different ways and means of circumventing the ancient obstruction to upgrade a much-needed modern means of transport have been aired from time to time by the Railway authorities and the Government. For a brief while it was even suggested that to avoid disturbing the monument we would even make do with a single track between the Naganahalli and Pandavapura stations. But this move, seemingly very kind to our heritage and hoary past, would have completely defeated the whole purpose of doubling the track thus making a mockery of the entire expensive project.

What I would like to highlight here is the very lackadaisical attitude of our government agencies to proper planning before jumping into the very profitable business of execution. It looks like a very apt case of utter disregard to the axiom of looking before leaping and doing just the opposite instead. Many engineers working for the Railways and many other very knowledgeable and qualified people tell me that with a little proper planning the track doubling work could have been accomplished without the need to re-locate the monument.

This point of view seemed right even to me when I visited the place just yesterday with my son, Adnan to have a first-hand look. It is common knowledge that to a common man with a little common sense, alternative options come easily while to experts with intelligence they often remain elusive. The new bridge across the south branch of the river Cauvery built to carry the second line is almost ready and until now the authorities were unsure of how they would align the track while taking it past the station and across the not-to-wide island with very limited space for the rakes of trains which are getting longer day by day. With no other viable alternative in sight, since the seemingly very wrongly positioned bridge is already in place, they now seem to be all set for another round of grossly unjustified expenditure.

Initially it was announced that the armoury would be dismantled brick-by-brick and rebuilt. Then someone rightly discovered that this was the wrong way of handling a very fragile brick and lime mortar structure and said that they would cut it up like a cake into meter wide cubes and cart them away to the new location. This too did not seem very practicable while being very obviously very unkind to the structure itself.

Now they have reportedly tendered the process to a US firm and its Indian partners who will shift it without dismantling it for a whopping sum of Rs. 11.6 crore. The process is bound to be interesting to watch. These armouries built by Tipu are semi-underground rooms with very thick walls and sloping masonry roofs supported by pillars where gun powder and small arms used to be stored. It is on record that he had built eleven almost identical armouries at Srirangapatna and seven of them are still standing in identical states of neglect.

I have been able to locate and count five of them ever since the time of my childhood. There are five others outside Srirangapatna located at the Manzarabad fort near Sakleshpur, Pavagada, Madhugiri, Sultan Battery in Kerala and Bengaluru. The last mentioned is deep inside Kalasipalyam behind the Bangalore Medical College and although located in the heart of the capital, it is completely dilapidated and has very conveniently become notorious for all kinds of illicit activities. No one either in the Government or the BBMP under whose jurisdiction it falls seems to have thought of preserving it, let alone restoring it to its former state as a keepsake from the past.

None of the seven existing armouries in Srirangapatna too including the one that is very accessibly located at the western corner of the fort near the British martyrs’ memorial obelisk, built in 1907 has been maintained in a state that can attract tourist attention. When that is the case I am left wondering whose sentiments the authorities are trying to avoid hurting by spending such a huge sum of money on relocating and restoring a small hitherto completely neglected piece of history in a very inaccessible location while having allowed the rest of the magnificent fort at Srirangapatna to gradually crumble brick-by-brick due to the abject lack of protection and basic maintenance?

Now, eleven crore rupees is a very large sum of money and if it is spent wisely and honestly it can do immense good to the entire fort that surrounds Srirangapatna thus preserving the beauty and grandeur of the historic town. Spending it just to relocate the armoury that now obstructs an albeit wrongly planned Railway track just as a face-saving measure is a sheer waste of public money most of which will undoubtedly go only to line the pockets of unscrupulous politicians, bureaucrats and contractors who thrive on such needless projects. People should therefore oppose this move. No one is going to mourn the loss of a structure the existence and significance of which they never knew.

There are many other monuments with much greater significance than the armoury under consideration of this present rather wasteful effort which can benefit from some much needed attention. For instance, the fading and flaking paintings at the Daria Daulat Bagh, the many historically important ‘Water Gates’ with narrow passages and steps leading to the river and the once very tranquil Sangam, the point where the two branches of the river meet once again after embracing the island.

Not very long ago before the advent of the now omnipresent and omnipotent parking fee mafia, which enjoys the patronage and participation of some vested interests, this place was a favourite picnic spot for families. It has now become the favourite haunt of thieves, extortionists, drunkards and drug addicts while the authorities conveniently look the other way.

e-mail: kjnmysore@rediffmail.com

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / Friday – July 31st, 2015