K. Gunapal Kadamba, secretary of the mahamastakabhisheka committee, said on Thursday that the committee was striving to provide better facilities to the devotees and others during the mahamastakabhisheka of the 42-feet-tall statue of Lord Bahubali here from January 21 to 31.
Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Kadamba said that while about 30,000 to 40,000 devotees and people were expected during the initial days of the ceremony, the number was expected to touch 1 lakh during the last days. Though the mahamastakabhisheka ceremony would be held from January 21 to 29, the major ceremony would be on January 30.
The devotees and all people visiting Karkala would be given free meals in the afternoon and snacks in the evening during the festival. For this purpose, a 7,000-sqft pandal would be put up to provide food through self-service.
Already a Tyagi Bhavan had been constructed to house the holy men of the Jain community during the ceremony in Karkala. The renovation of all Jain basadis in Karkala had been taken up and was expected to be completed soon.
In the previous mahamastakabhishekas, wooden scaffolds were constructed. But this time, a metal scaffold had been constructed to pour milk and other items on the statue. This metal scaffold had cost Rs. 45 lakh. BSNL and Airtel would be putting up special mobile towers near Bahubali Betta.
The Department of Tourism was constructing three toilets in the town – one below the Bahubali Betta, second one near Adinatha Basadi and the third one near St. Lawrence Church. They were being constructed a cost of Rs. 42 lakh.
During the last mahamastakabhisheka, the committee had constructed a discourse centre out of the proceeds of the festival. This time, the committee had a plan of constructing a hostel at Hiriyangady. The dignitaries expected to visit the festival include Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Union Ministers Najma Heptullah, Ananth Kumar, D.V. Sadananda Gowda, BJP national president Amit Shah, the former Chief Ministers B.S. Yeddyurappa and M. Veerappa Moily.
The government had released Rs 13.5 crore for development work for the mahamastakabhisheka. Of this Rs. 13.5 crore, an amount of Rs. 11 crore was being spent on widening all the major roads in the town. The rest of the amount was being spent on water, drainage, electrification and beautification of the town, Mr. Kadamba said.
