PURI/BHUBANESWAR: The managing committee of Shri Jagannath temple at Puri on Friday approved an annual budget of Rs 413 crore for 2024-25 financial year and took a series of decisions for development of the 12th century shrine.
With this, the total budget of Srimandir reached Rs 913 crore including the corpus fund of Rs 500 crore that was earlier announced by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi. Chief administrator of the temple Arabinda Padhee said after all the expenses of 2024-25 financial year, the surplus amount would be Rs 100.98 crore.
As per the decision of the managing committee, the Natya Mandap will be air-conditioned for convenience of thousands of devotees visiting the temple everyday. Besides, all almirahs and chests kept in mandap will be removed to allow movement of elderly devotees, women and men in three separate queues. There will also be an elevation in the mandap to allow devotees to have a clear ‘darshan’ of the Trinity from the ‘Bahara Katha’. “We have had a preliminary round of discussions on these arrangements to be made in the Natya Mandap with our structural engineers. Subsequently, we will speak to the Chhattisha Nijog and other servitors to streamline the movement of devotees,” said Padhee.
Further, doors of both the chambers of Ratna Bhandar will be clad with gold after the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) completes its renovation work of the temple treasury. “Earlier, there was a proposal to clad the Bahara Bhandar door with silver and the Bhitara Bhandar door with gold. But the managing committee decided on the day that the doors of both the chambers will be covered in gold,” he said. This apart, the temple administration will have an FM channel of its own and also come out with an SOP to provide financial aid to sevayats who are doing well in wrestling, body-building and extra-curricular activities.
For streamlining ‘nitis’ in the shrine and ensuring proper coordination with sevayats of various nijogs for the purpose, it was decided that a niti sub-committee meeting will be held once in a month by the district collector or deputy chief administrator. Padhee informed that there has been a significant rise in the revenue generated from temple lands.
To improve revenue generation further in the coming days, Odisha Space Applications Centre (ORSAC) will be roped in to conduct a GPS survey of all the lands belonging to the Trinity. Besides, all the records of the temple administration will be digitised, he added.
Funds & facility
* The Total budget of Srimandir has reached Rs 913 crore
* Temple administration to have FM channel of its own