Puri: Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) today said that there has been no damage to the main temple and the ‘Neelachakra’ due to severe cyclone Fani after it carried out a drone assessment of the Nilachakra.
The ASI today submitted an interim report to the Temple Management Committee. Earlier the ASI had sought the permission of the management committee to use drone photography as Puri administration in 2014 had declared the airspace around the famous shrine as “no-fly zone” after a number of aerial videos of the shrine were circulated in social media.
Temple’s chief administrator Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra said that the temple managing committee will have another meeting on Wednesday to decide the repair work to be taken up by the ASI after Rath Yatra.
“The Jaya Vijaya idols, which were damaged during the severe cyclonic storm on May 3, have been replaced with the new stone idols. These will be consecrated on June 16,” said Mohapatra.
In another development the Temple Administration today also dropped the idea of inviting bids telecast rights for the upcoming Ratha Yatra. Instead, it has allowed all the television channels to broadcast the annual car festival beginning July 4 this year.
The Temple Administration had also decided to ask TV channels to contribute a part of their profit to the temple fund and a meeting in this regard with the channel owners will be held in a couple of days.
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Ms Kalinga