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.
