A new trench is being dug on Thursday to discharge excess rainwater from the fort complex, including the moat and the temple, as the premises, especially the temple, still remains inundated for nearly a fortnight with devotees barred from visiting the temple.
The work, undertaken jointly by the PWD and Vellore Corporation, after obtaining consent from the district administration and the ASI, begins after pumping of rainwater from Jalakanteshwara temple, an ASI protected monument, inside the fort complex, failed since last week.
The Collector, P. Kumaravel Pandian, inspected the temple on Thursday to ascertain ways to discharge stagnated water from the fort complex.
"After heavy rain, the temple turned a soak pit due to rising water level in the moat. Percolation is also slow around the waterbody due to the increased water level,” M. Varadaraj Suresh, Archaeological Officer (A.O), ASI (Vellore), told The Hindu.
Need for repair
Officials said that the British era sluice gates on the northern end of the fort have to be repaired to discharge excess water from the moat to the nearby canal, especially during heavy rainfall.
The existing sluice gates are located at a depth of 15 feet in the moat.
Along with the mosque and the parapet wall of the Fort, the 16th century Shiva temple is a protected monument inside the Fort complex, which has 58 colonial buildings, including Mahals where the Mysore king Hyder Ali and his warrior son, Tipu Sultan, spent their last years as prisoners with their families in the end of 18th century.
