The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration on Tuesday passed a mega Rs 212.26-crore budget for 2014-15 fiscal keeping in view the Nabakalebar rituals of lord Jagannath and his siblings in 2015.
Huge funds have been allocated for infrastructure development while Rs 57 crore has been earmarked for construction of pilgrim facilities like pilgrim guest house, FM radio broadcast center and a multi-storied building along the grand road. Rs 22.56 crore has been allotted for purchase of raw materials to be used for Nabakalebar rituals. Similarly, Rs 7 crore has been allocated to meet the costs of Kotha Bhog and towards remuneration of servitors. Establishment cost has been pegged at Rs 29.27 crore.
This apart, while Rs 7 crore has been set aside for the servitors’ welfare programmes like healthcare and pension, Rs 2.8 crore is fixed for general expenditure and Rs 5,35 crore for miscellaneous expenditure.
The temple administration expects to get Rs 81.19 crore as deposits in its corpus fund. The State Government would provide Rs 96.33 crore. Similarly, Rs 6.27 is expected from the sale proceeds of the temple endowment. Income from other sources has been reflected at Rs 35.58 crore. The total expected revenue is estimated at Rs 154.44 crore.
Temple Chief Administrator Arabind Padhee presented the budget before the temple body met under chairmanship of Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingh Dev.
The meeting also discussed the Synergy Group’s proposal for setting up of a 500-bed hospital in the town. The meeting resolved to allocate land for the purpose.