In the close vicinity of all the hussle and bussle of Pune Railway station there is a unique building popularly known as ‘Eagle’s Nest’. The building is presently under the control of Indian Railways and is being used as training center for Permanent Way(P-Way) engineers of Indian Railways. The building has been accorded heritage status as by “INDIAN NATIONAL TRUST FOR ART AND CULTURAL HERITAGE”. The building has also been listed as Grade-I heritage structure by Pune Municipal Corporation.
History of Eagle’s Nest Building
Despite being one of the prominent building of Indian Railways very little is known about the origin of the building. Recently a plaque has been installed in the building premises describing the history of the building. The plaque has been installed after collecting the history of the building from Pune Municipal Corporation and other available records. As per the plaque the brief history of the building is as follows:
The building was the second home and private residence of parsi elite Mr. Nusserwanji Maneckji Petit Esq.(1827-1891), a Bombay businessman, justice and philanthropist. He was the brother of Sir Dinshaw Maneckji Petit who was the founder of Maneckjee Petit Mill. The building has been used as ‘Monsoon Resort’ and has served as Railway Guest-house serving many royal personalities and Governors in British India. Father of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah is also said to have stayed in the building for some time. The building being very close to the Pune Railway station was used as Supply Depot during the World War II.
Design of Eagle’s Nest Building
The Building has a design of a bird with two spread wings. It was named as Eagle’s Nest Villa as Eagle is considered sacred by Zoroastrians and symbolises power and strength. The building measuring 8940 sq. m emphasises the colonial concept of residential Villa planning with vernacular execution as a climatic response to tropical conditions of Indian Subcontinent.
Beginning of Training School(IRICEN)
‘East India Railway Committee’ popularly known as Acworth committee set up in 1921 recommended for consolidation and nationalisation of Indian Railways. In this context the Indian Railways was nationalised on July 1, 1951. At the beginning of the 1950s India’s rail network had 53,596 route kilometers and 77,609 track Km. This vast network required an army of trained officer and staff to maintain. It was in this context that ‘Permanent Way Training School’ was founded in the Eagles’s Nest building in 1959. The school was renamed as ‘Indian Railway Institute of Advance Track Technology’ in 1971. The Institute was again renamed as ‘Indian Railway Institute of Civil Engineering'(IRICEN) in 1985.
Present Status
With the opening of new IRICEN campus in Koregaon Park in Pune, the Eagles’ Nest complex has been converted into Senior Supervisor Training Wing(SSTW) of the IRICEN’s Koregaon campus since 2014. The campus now caters to the training of Senior Supervisor viz. JEs and SSEs of Civil engineering department of Indian Railways. The building presently being owned by IRICEN is well maintained and well preserved.