House that? 400-tonne ancestral building shifted by 35 feet in Kovai
Published: 14th May 2013 09:41 AM | Last Updated: 14th May 2013 09:41 AM | A+A A-
In a mammoth task, a 400-tonne house with a ground plus one structure, is being lifted and relocated from its original location at Saibaba Koil in Coimbatore. So far, engineers have been able to shift it to a location 35 feet away from the site where the house stood. The structure will be moved further away by five feet.
The house owner A Thangavelu, who wanted to construct a commercial complex at the site where the building was located, faced a dilemma on whether to demolish his ancestral home or to retain it. “We were planning to construct a commercial building on the plot, which is located in one of the prime areas on Mettupalayam Road. However, it required demolishing the house spread over 2400 sq.ft, which was constructed in 1950,” he said.
That’s when a Haryana-based engineering company came to his help, which successfully ‘lifted’ the house in a bid to reinstall it 40 feet away. He has not only saved the money on building a new house, but managed to retain the house where he grew up.
“This would have required a huge investment as the house had to be first demolished and another structure built after getting the approval.
When we heard about the innovative concept of shifting the house by lifting it, we were optimistic of keeping the ancestral house intact by investing about Rs 20 lakh. Building a similar house would have cost nearly Rs 80 lakh,” Thangavelu added.
TDBD Engineering Works Pvt Ltd, involved in lifting and shifting building structures, claims it to be the heaviest building they have shifted anywhere in India.
“The company has shifted many buildings, where the maximum weight of the building was approximately 150 tonnes. This is first time we moved a house weighing around 400 tonnes. For this purpose, we utilised 300 rollers and 300 jacks,” Gurdeep Singh, chief engineer of the company said at a press conference here.
“A team of 12-15 workers over the past 60 days lifted the house by one-and-a-half feet and moved the house by 35 feet as on Monday,” Singh explained.