The Specified Authority (SA) of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD),which met on Thursday, resolved to construct a Lord Venkateswara temple at Kanyakumari — the southernmost point in peninsular India at a cost of Rs. 10 crore.
Briefing mediapersons on the day-long deliberations of the meeting held at the Annamaiah bhavan at Tirumala, SA Chairman J. Satyanarayana said that the temple would come up on a sprawling five acres of land adjoining the seashore. The local Vivekananda trust has donated the land to the TTD.
Golden Chariot
The meeting also decided to take up repair works to the Golden Chariot of the Tirumala temple.
The management also had decided to send letters to the donors seeking their opinion with regard to the donations which they have made both in cash and kind towards the TTD's Ananda Nilayam and Anantha Swarnamayam project that had been stalled under the directions of the High court.
The management now has three options — one to give back the gold and cash which have been donated for the project to the donors if they desired so; secondly to reserve and use it, to meet the future needs of the temple such as making of the jewels and ornaments for the deities and such other ornamental pieces as may be required for the daily rituals inside the temple and thirdly to deposit the donations with the State Bank of India with which it has already inked a pact for a ‘Gold Deposit' scheme with the consent of the donors. . The TTD, which has so far received over 95 kilograms of gold and Rs. 12 crore in the form of donations for the ‘project,' has utilised over 1.5 kilograms of gold.
The SA also resolved to take up repair works at the Sampangi Prakaram inside the hill temple where the daily Kalyanotsavams are being conducted at a cost of Rs.1.5 crore. During the course of the repair works, the Kalyanotsavams of the Lord will be conducted at the Ranganayakula mandapam inside the main temple complex without hurting the sentiments of the devotees.
In another major decision, it was resolved not to disturb the existing structure of the Tirumala temple as suggested at the two-day national seminar on ‘Perspectives of Tirumala Darshan ‘conducted at Tirupati in November last and constitute a six-member committee headed by former Executive officer P.V.R.K. Prasad to study all other suggestions.
