A grand plan has been prepared to renovate and rehabilitate about 189 temples and 40 rajagopurams in the State at a cost of Rs. 27 crore to restore the heritage structures back to their glory.
An estimated Rs 23 crore required for renovating the temples would be drawn from the Common Good Fund whereas repairs to gopurams would be undertaken separately with Rs 5 crore.
This plan was finalised by Endowments Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah at a meeting here on Thursday at which he reviewed the activities of his department with K. V. Ramanachary, Principal Secretary, Revenue (Endowments), G. Balaramaiah, Commissioner of Endowments, and other officials.
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Temples in Dalitwadas
Mr Lakshmaiah told reporters that Rs. 3.7 crore had been sanctioned for renovation of 22 of the 40 identified gopurams and works were already in progress in 18. It was also decided that Rama temples would be built in Dalitwadas, at a cost of Rs. 1 lakh each, and 70 Shiva temples in Chenchu settlements in forests by spending Rs 2.5 lakh on each of them.
A high-level meeting would be held in December to formulate a policy to protect the temple lands in the State, he said, appealing to people to inform the government if any temple land was encroached upon in their areas.
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Mr Lakshmaiah said he had asked the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) to prepare a master plan for proper water supply in on Tirumala, keeping in view the needs for the next 25 years as the number of pilgrims was increasing every year.
Following a request by Andhra Pradesh, the Kerala Government had promised to allot land at Sabarimala for the construction of a complex with amenities for pilgrims from the State who constituted 26 per cent of the visitors to the temple of Lord Ayyappa.