Heritage panel needs to pay more attention to historic Wellesley Bridge

Sir,

This refers to the news item titled “Heavy water release from KRS Dam: Movement on historic Wellesley Bridge banned” in Star of Mysore dated Aug.10. Now this is what I call a heritage structure. I understand that we have a Committee which decides what is and what is not a heritage building or structure. But even going by the Committee’s definition of heritage, this bridge meets all the criteria.

The heritage panel should actually pay more attention to structures that bring us pride and it should be our obligation to ensure it remains so for posterity. This means a permanent maintenance budget and a committee of people who look to preserve heritage structure is needed before it collapses.

The Committee should necessarily consist of historians, who actually know the history of the heritage structure, they should know who designed the structure, who supervised it, who was responsible for its construction, method of construction, material used etc. Other members must consist of Architects, Structural Engineers, Civil Engineers and some people of renown and people of good standing. This Committee must look for documents and drawings of the buildings or structure or get the drawing and structure done, lay hands on old photographs, etc. Annual inspections must be done by the Heritage Committee and they should not depend on Government engineers.

Any additional repairs with regard to the historic bridge must be done to preserve the strength of the structure and see to it that it survives for the next two hundred years and if ever another bridge is required to be built near the current bridge ensure that it is built with heritage characters and categorise it as a heritage building 100 years from now.

– George Rego, Mysuru, 12.8.2020

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