Amid a third major archaeological find a 132-year-old tunnel built during the British era in India was discovered at the state government-run J J Hospital in south Mumbai.
Amid a third major archaeological find a 132-year-old tunnel built during the British era in India was discovered at the state government-run J J Hospital in south Mumbai. –
The 200-meter-long tunnel, built way back in the year 1890, was found accidentally by a Resident Medical Officer of the Byculla based hospital
While disclosing the find to media persons on Friday, the Dean of JJ Hospital
Dr. Pallavi Saple, revealed that the tunnel involving stone brick work was discovered under the building that housed Sir D. M. Petit Hospital for Women and Children opened in March 1892”.
It is learnt that while the RMO of the hospital Dr. Arun Rathod, was on a routine round, he found a hole near the nursing college wall. The curiosity got the better of him so much so that he discovered the tunnel following a preliminary exploration.
As per Dr Saple the discovered tunnel area was being converted into a nursing college located in the premises of the
J J hospital and Grant Medical College, Mumbai.
Notably, the J J Hospital administration has decided to provide all the details of the tunnel discovery to the office of the Mumbai District Collector and Archaeological Survey of India, Mumbai Circle, for further investigation.
In the earlier years, two major discoveries were made at Raj Bhavan located at a distance of 5.4 kilometers from the J J Hospital where another Victorian era tunnel was found.
It may be recalled that in August 2016, a 13-room and 15000 sq. feet long British era underground bunker was discovered underneath the lawns of Raj Bhavan.
The then Maharashtra Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao, credited with the discovery, had ordered the restoration of the bunker under the guidance of an expert architect firm. The 110-year-old bunker, touted to be of the pre-World War era, had 13 rooms, that could be accessed by a 20-feet-high gate, with proper ventilation and other basic facilities.
The bunker was cleaned up, strengthened, and conserved after which the former President Ram Nath Kovind had inaugurated the Martyrs’ Museum created there.
Later in November 2018, two identical 22- tonne British era cannons were found lying abandoned at Raj Bhavan here. They were lifted using a crane.
Later Governor Rao, who supervised cannon lifting operations ordered for the conservation and restoration of the cannons, and had asked the officials to place the cannons in front of ‘Jal Vihar’ (Banquet Hall) in the Raj Bhavan complex.
The two identical cannons separated from one another by 25 meters were found covered under mud at the foothills of Raj Bhavan, apparently for many decades.The cannons were noticed by staff members of Raj Bhavan during a tree plantation activity a few months ago.
Each of the cannons weighs 22 tonnes, measures 4.7 meters in length and has a diameter of 1.15 meters.
News Input K.V.Raman
