THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Draining of Padmatheertham pond of Sree Padmanabhaswami temple began on Monday morning. Kerala State Nirmithi Kendra officials, the agency assigned with the renovation of the pond and cloak room, said that the work which began at 10:15 am is expected to end on Wednesday morning.
“The depth of the pond ranges between 10 to 20 feet. The work is being carried out with the help of six mortars which draw water using two 6-inch pipes, two 2.5 inch pipes and two 4-inch pipes. The water-level saw an 8-inch decrease by Monday evening 4 p:m,” an overseer with the KSNK said.
KSNK will start the renovation of the stone steps and the reconstruction of the granite mandapam on the bank of the pond after water is drained off. The agency had recently demolished the ancient mandapam on the bank of the pond and this had invited sharp criticism from devotees and Hindu organisations.
Critics alleged that the agency adopted crude methods for the demolition of a heritage structure. Later, a meeting convened by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had decided to continue the works under the supervision of the State Archaeology Department.
According to the officials, renovation of the mandapam is a challenging work since the base of the structure has been fixed without anything to bind it. “The base has been built by stacking large granite blocks one over the other to around nine feet height. On top was the tiled roof which was supported by the granite pillars which were recently dismantled,” they said.
The renovation works are being carried out at a quarter of the periphery of the pond near the temple. The works on the nearly 20 m stretch involves the renovation of the bathing ghats, cloak room and the mandapam.
There will be two separate bathing ghats for men and women. Each will have the facility to accommodate 100 persons at a time. The ghats will have a slightly raised platform with granite flooring for the safety of the pilgrims. There will be steel fencing on the three sides of the platform to prevent devotees from falling into the depths.
The other major work is the construction of a queue complex extending from the cloak room to the stone steps in front of the temple. This will help the devotees to traverse from the cloak room to the temple in rain or shine. The complex, built in Kerala’s traditional architectural style, will have tiled roofing and granite flooring.
The first phase of the renovation includes works to the tune of Rs 1.64 crore. Of this, Rs 25 lakh was spent for removing sludge from the pond.