The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Udayagiri Fort to get a facelift

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 20, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Udayagiri Fort to get a facelift

By P.S. Suresh Kumar

NAGERCOIL, SEPT.19. The district administration has decided to give a facelift to the Udayagiri Fort in Kanyakumari district at an estimated cost of Rs.7 lakhs to attract domestic and foreign tourists.

The fort is situated on the Thiruvananthapuram-Nagercoil National highway at Puliyoorkurichi. This is the most important military station of the erstwhile Travancore rulers, when Padmanabhapuram was their capital.

The fort is built of massive granite blocks around an isolated hillock, 260 feet high enclosing an area of almost 90 acres. It is renovated about AD 1600. The fort is said to have been destroyed by the King Raja Raja Chola.

The fort was rebuilt during the reign of Marthanda Varma, Venad King during 1741-44. Under the supervision of De Lannoy, Belgium General, who served as the Chief of the Travancore Army, East India Company's troops were stationed there till the middle of the 19 Century.

In the early days, the fort was of strategic importance. Prisoners captured in the campaign against Tippu Sultan were confined in the fort for sometime. In 1810, the East India Company's Army under Colonel St. Leger marched into the Travancore State through the Aramboly Pass to quell a rebellion under the leadership of Velu Thambi Dalavai. De Lannoy, who served Marthanda Varma loyally for 37 years and who was responsible for training his men in modern warfare, lived in the fort for several years and died on June 1, 1777.

His body was buried within the fort and a chapel was built on the spot. De Lannoy's tomb in the fort is marked out by a stone cross planted on the top, with the inscription in both Tamil and Latin. His wife and son were buried by his side.

The Kanyakumari Collector, Rajesh Lakhoni, allotted Rs.5 lakhs from the small saving's incentive fund to give a facelift to the fort as well as to set up a bio-diversity park within the fort.

An artificial fountain was also established in the fort. Seven spotted deers were brought here from Pechipparai. A sum of Rs. 2 lakhs was allotted under the Western Ghat programme to set up birdcages and renovate the entrance of the fort.

Recently, officials of the Department of Archaeology have found a tunnel within the fort.

``Necessary steps will be taken to renovate the passage. Besides illuminating the entire fort and constructing a wall around the tomb of De Lannoy, a children's park will be set up to develop this fort as one of the famous tourist spots in the district,'' the Collector said.

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