The World War I Memorial at Palayam, which had faced neglect for years, is finally getting a facelift.
The Thiruvananthapuram Road Development Company Ltd (TRDCL), the concessionaire for the Thiruvananthapuram City Road Improvement Project (TCRIP), has drawn up plans to renovate the small ‘island’ opposite the College of Fine Arts containing the pillar and to beautify it with a smattering of greenery.
‘’We expect to complete the work in three weeks. We will have flower beds and a provision for focus lighting. There is also a plan to give the stone pillar a sandstone texture. But we have to see whether it is feasible,’’ said TRDCL director Anil Kumar Pandala.
Today, the pillar attracts barely a glance from passersby. The protective railings had come down months ago, and veterans and serving soldiers have been calling for its restoration. The memorial was established years ago to memorialise the ‘Nair Pattalam’ of erstwhile Travancore who laid down their lives for the Allies in the 1914-1918 war, often called the Great War. ‘’To the memory of the men of the Indian Army recruited from the State of Travancore who lost their lives in the service of the empire during the Great War - 1914-1921,’’ reads the inscription on the pillar.
The Travancore forces merged with the Indian Army after Independence. Today, the 9th and 16th battalions of the Madras Regiment trace their history to the Travancore forces.
The stone pillar is also special in one way. This is one of the few memorials to the soldiers of World War I which gives the date of the war as 1914-1921 instead of the more common 1914-1918, 1918 being the year armistice was declared. Some memorials give the latter year as 1919, when the Treaty of Versailles was signed. But it was in 1921 that the US signed a separate treaty with Germany, the Treaty of Berlin.
TRDCL, which has developed 42 kilometres of city roads under TCRIP, has been beautifying traffic islands on its roads in a phased manner.