Five sophisticated lightning arrestors are going to be installed at the five ‘rajagopurams' of the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple here. Together, the five would cover the entire temple complex which spreads across 17 acres.
R. Padmanaban, Joint Commissioner of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR and CE) Department, and Executive Officer, told The Hindu here on Friday that a proposal to execute this project at a cost of Rs. 10 lakh was approved during a Board of Temple Trustees meeting.
Presided over by the Board Chairman Karumuttu. T. Kannan, other temple trustees M. Balasubramanian, S. Rajaram, Pugalagiri Vadamalyan, Rukmani Palanivel Rajan and S. Rajaram took part in the meeting held on Thursday.
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While all the temple towers had a lightning arrestor, they were installed over four decades back and could cover only 10 metres each. Each of the new ones could over around 125 meters. Besides protecting the entire temple complex, the new arrestors could also record the number of lightning strikes.
He said that this was mainly a preventive measure as no lightning strike against the temple had been recorded in the recent years. This was taken up following a suggestion made by the HR and CE Commissioner P.R. Shampath during his recent visit to the temple. The Commissioner had also said that a few such lighting arrestors were installed at some temples in Chennai.
The proposal would be forwarded to the HR and CE Commissioner. After his approval, tenders would be called for and installation works will begin at the earliest.
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Donation of horses
Mr. Padmanaban said that a donor had come forward to donate two horses to the temple. The proposal was under consideration of the temple authorities. The Meenakshi temple also had an elephant and a couple of camels.