Tipu's armoury building translocated for laying track

Tipu Sultan's pyramid-shaped armoury in Srirangapatanam has moved to a new address after the railways translocated the heritage structure intact to make way for a track.
This was a first of its kind move by the railways to translocate a heritage property.
A massive exercise was undertaken with the help of experts to translocate the building successfully to a nearby location for laying track near Mysore, said a senior Railway Ministry official.
Constructed during Tipu Sultan's era (1782-1799), the armoury building was located right in the way of the proposed alignment of double track between Bengaluru and Mysore.
"The entire heritage building was shifted 40 metres away from its existing location safely without causing any damage to the protected property," the official said.

The month-long massive exercise of translocating an entire monument at Srirangapatanam to a nearby rail land with the help of US expertise was carried out at an estimated cost of Rs 13 crore.

Though the construction work of doubling the line between Mysore and Bangalore had started since 2013, the alignment could not be completed due to the heritage building which was coming in the way.
The job was executed with the help of experts from USA, the official added.
For lifting and moving the building, total 37 jacks were pressed into service. All these jacks were connected with the unifying jacking system for simultaneous and synchronised operation to prevent any unequal lifting and damages to the structure.

The armoury building is a typical single-storey masonry structure with arch roofing system.