CHENNAI:R N Ratnam, a man in his 80s, reminisces his past in his house in Mylapore, as his wife brings him a hot cup of filter coffee. He lays out files containing newspaper clippings, black-and-white photographs and old letters. From the collage of memories that lies in front of him, he pulls out a photo of a man in a hat, leaning on an aircraft. “When I was a young man, I used to fly with my father in it,” he says as he points to the aircraft in the picture. “This was his official vehicle when the British government commissioned the project to him.”
US Ramasundaram (USR) — the man in the hat — was asked to build 13 aerodromes across south India within a year. “Little do we know today that Madras was bombed in the 1940s. The British wanted to either defend their colony or fly bombers from here — I don’t know. While the rest of us were evacuated to Salem, my father was asked to build these runways immediately,” says Ratnam as he picks up another photograph from the lot — a colour picture of a gold medal.
USR graduated from the College of Engineering, Guindy, with a gold medal that directly secured him a place in the Indian Service of Engineers (ISE) in 1924. “During his early years, he served as an Assistant Engineer for the construction of Mettur Dam. After working in several places across the country, he returned to Madras in 1942 as superintending engineer, Southern Aviation Circle,” adds Ratnam.
The Southern Aviation Circle was an organisation that was set up by the Royal Air force, India, which functioned under the Ministry of War during the British regime. The aim was to build airfields across the south (on priority) in view of the imminent threat of Japanese air attacks during World War II. Ratnam claims there was no time to even call for tenders and USR was given the authority to set up contracts with those who deemed most suitable.
“Due to unprecedented demand for airfields to meet the Japanese threat, airfields had to be ready, scattered over the whole province, with the least possible delay. USR had to commence work in all the 13 airfields over the whole of south from Vijagapattinam to Kayatar in Tinnelveli District,” writes NG Selvam, former chief engineer of the Central Public Works Department (CPWD), who was posted as the technical PA to USR for this project.
Aerodromes sprouted in Madras, Ulundurpet, Tanjore, Tiruchy, Kaanadu Kaathan (Chettinad), Kayatar, Trivandrum, Coimbatore, Bangalore (Yelahanka) and Gannavaram (Vijaywada). USR was moved to the Eastern Aviation Circle the following year to finish a similar project with them.
While some of the airfields in the South have been abandoned, others have become bigger. The runway in Yelahanka has been adopted by the Bangalore Flying Club, the one in Thanjavur is being used as an Air Force base, Coimbatore has become a full-fledged airport and the one in Ulundurpet was the longest runway in South-Asia at that point. The five-km-long runway was used by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1955, when the Prime Minister came to inaugurate the Neyveli Lignite Corporation’s plant, as reported by TNIE on December 29, 2016.
Until 15 years ago, the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation used the airfield to store paddy and other grains. After their departure, the abandoned air-strip slipped into the hands of anti-social elements. However, the Madras Flying Club along with the department of tourism is now contemplating on adopting the airport for their training. The runway at Ulundurpet (still visible on Google maps) was built during a time when concrete couldn’t be mixed in-situ. N Thanikachala Mudhaliar, a former colleague of USR, writes, “USR’s speed of understanding any engineering problem was phenomenal. Speed and efficiency were his watch words.”
RN Ratnam hopes that the Ulundurpet airport is named after his father to preserve his memory. USR succumbed to an ulcer that can easily be treated today.