Sir,

It was fascinating to go through Gouri Satya’s write-up in SOM dated Dec. 20 on ‘De Havilland Arch, an Engineering Marvel’ in continuation of Dr.  Javeed Nayeem’s article. Of course, needless to say both of them have been a source of great information to old-time SOM readers like me. 

In the article there is a reference to the stairway to Chamundi Hill from Uttanahalli side. This stirred my curiosity on Chamundi Hill Road as the stretch leading to Uttanahalli is named after my maternal grandfather H.R. Venkatasubba Rao (see picture above).

I know practically nothing about him except what my father mentioned about him. He died around the time I was born in January 1932. 

He was an Executive Engineer and my father said that he was responsible for supervising the construction of Lalitha Mahal Palace and also golden canopy of Chamaraja Wadiyar statue. He worked under Sir M.Visvesvaraya and was responsible for water supply to Bangalore City (Thippagondanahalli water supply)  and other projects. 

In fact, a mention has been made about him by DVG in a small book ‘Halavu Mahaneeyaru.’ I tried to search in the archives without success. Obviously he must have been a very important person if the Uttanahalli Road is named after him.

 May be, Gouri Satya or Raja Chandra may throw some light on this as both of them are very informed as chroniclers of Mysore history.

– H.R. Bapu Satyanarayana, Saraswathipuram, 21.12.2020

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