The Department of Archaeology, Museums and Heritage has directed the contractors engaged in expansion of the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway to suspend the work near Srirangapatna as it has endangered a 500-year-old temple belonging to the Vijayanagar period.
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A spot inspection was carried out by an Archaeological Assistant on Saturday and he submitted a report stating that the precincts surrounding the Gadde Ranganathaswamy temple on the banks of the Cauvery was being used as dumping yard for debris.
The report said the nature of the ongoing civil works at the spot indicated that a bridge was under construction and this threatened the integrity of the monument said to belong to 15th/16th centuryin which was enshrined an idol of Sri Ranganathaswamy.
The temple is not among the list of protected monuments but the report stated that it was a remarkable specimen with a hoary past and needs to be conserved. Sources in the State Archaeology Department said they will write to the government to take steps to relocate the monument before the civil works for highway expansion are allowed to continue.
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Senior officials in the Department said relocation and transplantation of the temple was easy as it was made of stone. This can be dismantled and transplanted elsewhere unlike the 18th century armoury of the Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan era which had delayed the railway track doubling work, also at Srirangapatna. The entire structure had to be moved in one block as it was made of bricks and lime mortar and a U.S.-based firm and the railways was jointly entrusted with the task of relocating the armoury.
The NHAI has taken up the highway expansion between Mysuru and Bengaluru which is expected to be completed by 2021. Once completed, the commuting time between the two cities will be reduced to 90 minutes.