NALGONDA: The gold covering of the ‘viman gopuram’ of the Yadadri Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple is expected to be completed by February 2025. The previous BRS government led by K Chandrasekhar Rao decided to cover the ‘vimana gopuram’ with gold as part of renovation works.
The former chief minister called for donations for this purpose from industrialists and other sections of society. KCR himself donated one kg gold for the project. The then ministers T Harish Rao, Puvvada Ajay, Mallareddy, MP Santosh, My Home Cements’ Rameshwar Rao and others donated gold and cash. While 60 kg gold was estimated to be needed for the the project, 10.5 kg gold and Rs 20 crore in cash were received by the temple.
The temple authorities utilised the cash donations to purchase 26 kg gold. To make up for the shortfall of yellow metal, the authorities have decided to use 13 gold bonds the temple has with banks and two kg gold received through hundi from devotees. Apart from these, they are planning to sell 776 kg of silver offered by devotees to the deity to purchase gold for completing the project.
The gold donation campaign launched during the previous BRS government has lost steam after the Congress came to power leaving the Yadadri temple authorities in a confusion as to how to complete the project. The authorities are said to have failed to properly advertise the project and encourage donations from devotees.
A temple official said that the gold covering work has been entrusted to a Chennai-based company, M/S Smart Creations. He said that the company has the experience of accomplishing gold covering of a temple ‘dwajastambam’ and ‘garbhalaya mukhadwaram’. According to the official, Rs 3.9 crore will be paid to the Chennai firm for 10,000 square feet of gold covering of the temple.