The future of the 284-year-old granite fort around the Padmanabhapuram palace in Kanniyakumari district has been marred by uncertainty as the proposal to restore and rebuild its fallen portions has not made any progress.
While the palace, the residence of the Travancore kings before they shifted their capital to Thiruvananthapuram, is under the control of the Kerala government, the 4.10 km long fort, which is also known as Kalkulam Fort is maintained by the Tamil Nadu government.
The palace is periodically repaired by the Kerala government, but the fort has fallen into neglect. Now, a proposal has been sent to the heritage division of the Public Works Department (PWD). When a portion of the wall on the southern side of the fort collapsed during heavy rain in 2021, Dairy Development Minister Mano Thangaraj, who earlier held the portfolio of Information Technology, visited the fort with officials and engineers, and assessed the situation and instructed the PWD to prepare a project report.
Subsequently, the inspection of the fort by PWD Minister E.V. Velu paved the way for the preparation of a detailed survey of the 4.10-km structure. The PWD prepared a report for the restoration of the fort at a cost of ₹30 crore. The District Collector also made a strong case for the immediate repair of the damaged wall and removal of vegetation, including trees, that had grown on the fort, which encloses an area of 186 acres.
“We sent a proposal for ₹2 crore to rebuild the fallen portions and ₹30 crore for restoring the rest of the fort. There is a question on why we should spend money for a fort when the palace is under the control of the Kerala government. We have also sought the opinion of the Archaeology Department on the cultural importance and value of the fort,” an official said.
According to the government report, the main structural foundation is stable. The fort wall has been interlocked with keystone spacing every 2 m. But the one foot thick stone masonry wall with lime mortar and inner core wall filling, with 2 ft brick-jelly concrete, were found to have been damaged. The plastering on the top and side of the wall is also damaged.
Originally constructed as a mud structure, the fort’s wall was converted into a granite wall during the reign of Marthanda Varma, the modern architect of the Travancore Kingdom. The foundation was constructed with black stone. “The construction started around 1740 and continued even after his death,” said A.K. Perumal, the author of the book Thenkumariyin Kathai.
