Head of Visakha Sri Sarada Peetham Swaroopanandendra Saraswati launched the four-storey new wooden chariot of Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Antarvedi on Saturday.
In the early hours of September 5 last, the century-old chariot was gutted under suspicious circumstances on the temple campus.
The State government had spent ₹90 lakh on the new 40-foot chariot that was built with teak wood grown in the Bastar forest cover in Chhattisgarh.
On Saturday, Sri Swaroopanandendra Saraswati performed ‘samprokshanam’ before dedicating the chariot to the temple.
“Later, Sri Swaroopanandendra Saraswati also offered puja to the idols of Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy, Venu Gopala Swamy and Rukmini Devi mounted on the new chariot,” Y. Bhadraji, Endowments Assistant Commissioner and temple Executive Officer, told The Hindu .
Principal Secretary (Endowments Department) G. Vani Mohan, Additional Commissioner and Chairman of the chariot committee K. Ramachandra Mohan, Regional Joint Commissioner D. Bramaramba, and Deputy Commissioner (Kakinada) M. Vijaya Raju were present.
