Annadana Mandapam a likely dream this year too

Shifting of site engineers has hit the work at Sannidhanam

The much-publicised Annadana Mandapam project, launched by the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) and the High Power Committee (HPC) for implementation of the Sabarimala Master Plan, at Sabrimala Sannidhanam is unlikely to be commissioned this year too.

The project faces threat of further delay with the untimely shifting of experienced engineering staff, who have been diligently supervising the project work from the beginning.

The proposed ₹12-crore Annadana Mandapam, with a built-up area of 1,80,000 sqft, is said to be a flagship project of the HPC and the TDB. Though both the agencies promised to complete the project in 2016 itself, the work got delayed due to certain unprecedented trade union issues at Pampa.

The board authorities could also not keep their promise to make the Annadanam Mandapam fully operational prior to the Vishu festival in April 2017.

However, the TDB managed to serve food at the partially completed hall during the previous Mandalam-Makaravilakku pilgrimage season.

Engineers shifted

With just two months left for the beginning of the annual pilgrim season, two Assistant Engineers at Sabarimala, who were seriously monitoring the project work to complete the project this year itself, have been shifted for reasons best known to the authorities concerned. This has left a question mark on the time-bound commissioning of the project. The TDB has not even consulted the Special Commissioner appointed by the Kerala High Court before shifting the two experienced engineers from the master plan project sites at the eleventh hour, it is alleged.

It is also a fact that the onus of ‘Annadanam’ (free distribution of food to devotees) at Sabarimala has fallen on the TDB after permission for the same was denied to various devotees’ organisations, including the Akhila Bharatha Ayyappa Seva Sanghom that was been carrying out the ‘Annadanam’ there for the past several years.

Mechanised kitchen

G. Mahesh, chief architect of the Chennai-based master plan consultants Pithavadiyan and Partners Limited, says the Annadana Mandapam is designed to suit the modern style of cooking and serving of food. The kitchen will be a fully mechanised one with automatic dish-washers and cooking units that match international standards, he says.

But neither the TDB nor the HPC has started preparations for installing the proposed modern kitchen unit at the Annadana Mandapam. Even the electrification work on the three-storey Annadana Mandapam is yet to begin.

Any delay in the commissioning of the Annadana Mandapam will sure affect the Annadanam at Sabarimala.