By G Saravanan
Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai, on April 21, 2011:
CHENNAI: Ruling out possibility of any damage to the Ripon Building due to Metro Rail works, expected to begin soon, Commissioner of Chennai Corporation, D Karthikeyan, on Wednesday said, “Nothing will happen to the century-old heritage building.”
Speaking to reporters after a routine assessment along with Metro Rail officials on Ripon Building premises, he said, “Since their (Metro Rail) work involves just a tunnelling to excavate earth to set up facilities inside the Ripon Building compound, it will not affect the historic structure in any manner.”Besides, fixing of air ventilation shaft, which will be done at the end for the metro station, was also seven-metre away from the basement of the building. Hence, there was no chance of any kind of damage to the Ripon Building, he assured.The Metro Rail would also relocate statues of Sir Pitty Theagaraya Chetty and Lord Ripon, and the Golden Jubilee Independence Day commemorative pillar erected in 1998 till the works were over. Sources said that the Metro Rail authorities would restore these facilities on completion of the work.The Ripon Building, fondly called as the local ‘White House’ by Chennaiites due to its colour, is located near the Chennai Central Railway Station. Commissioned in 1913, it was built by a builder named Loganatha Mudaliar. It took four years to build the Indo-Saracenic edifice in white.Earl of Minto, the then Viceroy and Governor General of India, laid the foundation on December 12, 1909.
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