A team, including acclaimed sculptor and Rajya Sabha member Raghunath Mohapatra and District Planning Board Chairman and Bhograi MLA Ananta Das visited Bhograi’s prominent Bhusundeswar Shiva temple on Friday.
They took stock of the works that are being carried out for renovation of the dilapidated temple on the bank of river Subarnarekha which was damaged during floods in 2013.
During the visit, MP Mohapatra decaled that he would contribute Rs 1.5 crore out of Local Area Development fund (LAD). Mohapatra held discussions with a technical committee team including the head retired engineer Manas Pattnayak and executive engineers of various departments( R&B),RD and drainage, etc.
The renovation while isbeing undertaken with an estimated cost of Rs 16 crore, 60 pillars are being constructed to make the foundation more strong.
Mohapatra besides suggesting use of granite stones in the temple to prevent it from saline climatic effect from the Bay of Bengal, also urged the engineers to accelerate the works.
Reports said revised estimation would be around Rs 25 crore when the temple is completed.
Former MLA Susanta Chand, educationist Panka Panda, local BDO Satyajit Rout, Tehsildar Kamalakanta Panda, Ramakanta Karan, Tapan Panda, Bhubananda Das , Nishikanta Sahu and Suryakanta Sahu were present. Located in Bhogarai village, the Bhusandeswar Temple houses one of the tallest Shiva Lingams in the world. It is a 12 feet long and 14 feet wide lingam that is carved out of black granite.
But one thing which will surprise you is that only half of the Lingam is visible. It’s because the other half has been buried underground for years.
The 12 feet long Lingam has three significant parts. The middle part of the black granite lingam is in an octagonal shape, which is about 12 feet in diameter. It slightly leans towards the right.
