TIRUCHY: A portion of the ‘kodungai’, a protruding structure of the sunshade on Damodara Krishnakoil gopuram (tower) of Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam, collapsed around 2 am on Saturday. While no casualties were reported, HR&CE officials suspect the noise from bursting firecrackers and playing the drums at nearby temples as part of Aadi celebrations the previous night to have led to the limestone structure’s collapse.“The collapsed structure (kodungai) was about 33 feet from the ground while the entire tower would be around 130-foot tall. The 12-foot-long structure comprises several blocks,” an HR&CE official said.
The particular temple tower whose structure collapsed is located between East Chithirai Street and East Adayavalanjan Street. The tower has nine tiers of which the structure collapse was in the first tier. While the debris has been removed the public would be denied entry till the safety of the tower was ascertained, the police said.
The incident comes after a few blocks of the ‘kodungai’ were restored seven months ago following damage detection on them. Later, as the entire tower demanded renovation a committee studied it and fixed an estimate of Rs 98 lakh towards the work.