Title - Old lady of Aryankavu will soon lose her charm

Within a couple of weeks, the 110-year-old majestic viaduct across a valley in Aryankavu on the Shengottai-Kollam rail route, designed and constructed by British engineers, will lose its colonial charm. The next few days could well be the last days to have a final glimpse of the grand old lady in her colonial charisma.

The landmark Aryankavu viaduct in Kollam district which carried meter gauge trains for more than a century is a 13-arch architectural marvel that mesmerized everyone who passed by. As part of the gauge conversion project which is under way, the structure requires to be strengthened to accommodate broad gauge trains. For that purpose, the viaduct has to be jacketed with concrete.

The preliminary work for that has already started. The project is a necessity and will provide the equivalent of an exoskeleton to the rectangular piers of the 102-meter-long viaduct built with neatly cut blocks of granite and surkhi. But the front portion of the piers will be spared from the jacketing work so as to enable the structure to project a part of its colonial charm to posterity.

This concession has been granted to the viaduct by the Railways in the wake of strong local sentiments that the structure be preserved as a heritage property. The Railways cannot afford it as that would warrant a costly new alignment through the ghat section comprising forests which will be a difficult proposition.

The jacketing project is viewed as the most economical and practical solution to the problem. The contract for it has been awarded and it is a Rs. 3 crore work designed to provide the viaduct with at least another 50 years of use. Workers, on sliding work platforms have already started drilling the granite blocks on the three sides of the piers for the jacketing work but not those on the front portion.

The jacketing work will commence before Onam and expected to be completed in five months.

When the work is over the viaduct will not look the same from any side. Construction of the viaduct began in the late 1890s and was over by 1903. The meter gauge service on the Shengottai-Kollam section was commissioned in November 1904 by the then Travancore Maharaja Sree Moolam Thirunal Rama Varma V.

Next few days could well be the last days to have a final glimpse of it

It is a 13-arch architectural marvel that mesmerized everyone who passed by