Beneath the chambers of the Public Works Department buildings in Chepauk, lies buried a room that has been storing records left behind by the British government, for several decades now.
The Public Works Department has renovated the room constructed in 1864, and plans to digitise the records.
Hidden behind a few offices on the ground floor of the iconic red building, the room has metal racks that are 10-ft high.
Steep metal stairs lead to more such racks that have files that belonged to irrigation, general buildings’ and roads’ branches of the PWD, during the British period. Some of these files, belonging to the period between 1801 and 1931, have been covered with a wooden board instead of cardboard, and are marked C.P. (confidential particulars).
For several decades, a lone records clerk maintained the room.
Most files left behind by the East India Company and the British government had details about the then PWD engineers and their job profiles.
Handwritten files
Several of them were handwritten instructions of the then engineers about vacancies, transfers and other details, said PWD officials.
K.P. Satyamurthy, joint chief engineer (Buildings), said: “We also found details about British engineer John Pennycuick who constructed the Mullaperiyar dam, and British irrigation engineer Arthur Cotton. There are records on Pennycuick’s rise from an assistant engineer to retirement as chief engineer in Chennai.”
An order by a British engineer to allot PWD land behind the Chepauk complex, for forming a cricket club for recreational activity of the engineers, in early 1900s, was also found, he said.
“We are still running through the records and have found over 10,000 books in the room. Many young engineers, who were unaware of the room, are now visiting the premises,” he added.
