Puri: After receiving flak from Orissa High Court over delay in renovation of Srimandir Jagamohan, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has approved the design of stainless steel frames prepared by the temple technical committee.
Sources said ASI director general has written to the state works department secretary asking him to prepare an estimate for the installation of steel frames at the crumbling Jagamohan structure. The ASI director general has made it clear that the renovation of Jagamohan will be carried out as per the design and guidelines finalised by the Srimandir technical committee.
The technical committee had prepared a design for installation of steel frames at Jagamohan as per the advice of experts from IIT-Madras. It had told the ASI to fix the frames by drilling holes on Jagamohan floor. According to sources, ASI director general had given conditional approval to the design November 19.
The ASI authorities, however, had sent a communiqué to the works department November 24 asking it to prepare a fresh design of the steel frames and prepare an estimate accordingly. Pushing the temple renovation into uncertainty, ASI officials had asked the works department secretary December 10 to submit an estimate as per the design finalised by the technical committee, sources said.
Expressing displeasure over the prevailing uncertainty regarding the temple repair, works department secretary Nalinikant Pradhan had sent a letter to ASI director general December 19 urging him to take a final call on the issue.
Meanwhile, the HC had expressed concern over the delay while hearing a PIL December 20 and directed the ASI to submit an affidavit regarding the repair of the dilapidated structure. In a related development, ASI, the conservator of the 12th century shrine, has procured three tonne steel rods to do jacketing work at the four pillars of Jagamohan.
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