The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) has decided to undertake beautification of the Gundicha Temple here, where it expects massive footfall of devotees during lord Jagannath’s Rath Yatra in June next year to be celebrated as Nabakalebar (new form) festival.
lord Jagannath and his siblings lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra stay at the Gundicha Temple for seven days during the nine-day Rath Yatra.
On the SJTA’s invitation, the Technical Consultative Committee on Shree Jagannath Temple Conservation (TCCSJTC) visited the Gundicha Temple on Saturday to have a firsthand account of the condition of the temple and prepare a plan for its beautification and conservation based on its study.
The committee, led by its Chairman Gopal Chandra Mitra, suggested immediate repair of the walls of the Garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum) of the temple. While advising close examination of the stones affixed to the walls of the Garbhagriha, the committee asked for removal of the weaker stones to be replaced with new ones. It also advised giving a chemical coat to the walls, sources said.
SJTA Chief Administrator and Tourism and Culture Secretary Arabinda Padhee, who accompanied the committee to the Gundicha Temple, informed that the requisite repairs and beautification of the temple would be completed well before the Nabakalebar festival.
The technical committee also studied the condition of the Singhadwar of the Jagannath Temple, the road from the entrance of the shrine to the inner side of the boundary wall, floor of the inner space, walls of the Bhogamandap and walls of the Garbhagriha.
The SJTA and the technical committee agreed to widen the road from the entrance of the temple to the inner side of the boundary wall, undertake repair of the walls of Bhogamandap and Garbhagriha and application of chemical coat, to plant grass on empty spaces within the temple premises, to make improvements for discharge of waste water from the temple premises, installation of bright lights within the temple premises and beautification of the temple using modern technology, the sources said.
The committee also decided that plates with information for the devotees would be affixed within the temple and the lords’ Veshas and rituals would be exhibited through video while a garden would be raised within the temple premises.