The Mysuru Division of South Western Railways and the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) will collaborate to conserve the old railway bridge across the Kabini near Nanjangud.
An earlier proposal mooted by the authorities to have a restaurant on wheels is also being revived to boost tourism.
INTACH Mysuru convener and heritage expert N.S. Rangaraju told The Hindu that multiple rounds of talks have already been completed and the details, including the cost pertaining to its conservation and development, are still being worked out.
The heritage committee members, including a few experts comprising structural engineers and architects, along with railway officials recently paid a visit to the Mysuru Rail Museum to apprise themselves of the rail heritage.
Dr. Rangaraju said the stakeholders were also toying with the idea of roping in corporates for funding the project. Apart from the bridge, the old metre-gauge rail – which has now been dismantled – will be re-laid and a few coaches will be converted in to a restaurant.
A railway coach converted into a cafetaria already exists in the museum and the heritage experts inspected it to check its feasibility. Even the Sujathapuram station will be developed as part of the project.
A similar proposal was made more than 10 years ago but the project did not take off. The bridge is located between Tandavpura and Nanjangud town on the Mysuru-Chamarajanagar section. But the authorities are confident of signing an MoU to kickstart the project after finetuning the final details.
However an area of concern is the seasonal flooding for a short duration that takes place when the discharge from the Kabini reservoir exceeds 75,000 cusecs during monsoon. In 1991, the bridge was submerged and hence the authorities are wary of such a situation and how the damage if any to the project could be avoided.
The bridge across the river Kabini or Kapila is nearly 280 years old and existed even before the advent of the railways. Reckoned to have been constructed in the 1730s, it was the initative of Dalvoy Devaraj, who was a local chieftain, and the metre-gauge link connecting Mysuru to Nanjangud was laid and commissioned in 1899.
Built in the Gothic style, the bridge runs parallel to the existing road bridge and the new railway bridge. It measures 225 metres in length and has 56 piers. The bridge was closed and decommissioned for traffic after the last metre-gauge train crossed it on January 17, 2007.
In October last year, the railway authorities visited the bridge and announced that it would be developed and conserved as a heritage structure given its historicity.
