Rao Bahadur Ganpat Mahadev Kenjale (1835-1920)
Recollecting histories of Pune’s Engineers and Builders
V. R. Ranade, respectfully called Tatyasaheb by many, picked up English during a brief stint at the missionary school in Phadke Wada. Soon afterwards, he entered the world of construction through an incidental befriending with a British engineer and contractor. Mr. Cameron hired V.R. Ranade to communicate with workers on the building site of the railway tunnels at Kasara Ghat. A keen learner, Tatyasaheb assisted the engineer in various building contracts before venturing out to undertake building assignments on his own. Accompanied by his four able sons, uncle, and cousins, Tatyasaheb built railways, bridges, tunnels, waterworks, and station buildings or supplied bricks and timber. Work took V.R. Ranade & Sons across the Indian subcontinent, even as far as Burma.
While working on railway projects in Burma between 1909 and 1915, they completed many contracts at Kalaw, Yamethin, Myingyan, MyoAung, and Thazi. During this time, Tatyasaheb’s son, Govinda V. Ranade attempted to visit the famous freedom fighter Lokamanya Tilak who was imprisoned at Mandalay, but unfortunately Govinda was denied permission to see him.
The Ranades were ever eager to innovate. V.R. Ranade even had a personal subscription to Scientific American. They modified bullock carts to improve unloading and mechanised work processes. By the 1920s, V.R. Ranade & Sons gained repute as contractors proficient in building with the new material of reinforced cement concrete. In 1926 they built the new Poona Railway station with its impressive cantilevered platform roofs in concrete.
Trimbak Vinayak Ranade, a graduate engineer and the grandson of Tatyasaheb, was a senior partner in the company and led the design work. He was also a founding Director of the Bank of Maharashtra in 1935. The first board of directors of the bank, in fact, counted several Pune building contractors.
The Poona base of the family was in Bhaumaharaj Bol Wada. At one point more than 100 family members resided there! In the 1920s many Ranades moved to new bungalows built in Deccan Gymkhana and new dwellings were constructed in Sadashiv and Shukrawar Peth. Today, the legacy is carried forward by the sixth generation of Ranade members who are active in real estate.
Image courtesy: BAI Pune, Ranade family, M.V. Apte c/o Kiran U. Apte, Memories of Poona Facebook Group.