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Thursday, June 10, 2010

Kalahasti temple collapse – Andhra government to rebuild Srikalahasti temple tower


May 27, 2010 (Hyderabad) – The ‘Rajagopuram’ towering entrance to the 15th century Srikalahasti temple in Chittoor district that collapsed Wednesday night will be rebuilt with the assistance of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah announced Thursday.
‘We will approach the Archaeological Survey of India to rebuild the Rajagopuram in a scientific manner,’ Rosaiah told reporters here. Expressing his grief over the incident, he said an inquiry had already been ordered. ‘It is a matter which has to be looked into. I don’t have any ready made answers,’ he replied when asked if the negligence by the state’s endowments department had led to the collapse.
The government has formed a committee of experts to probe the reasons for the collapse of the ancient tower.
The temple’s 45-metre-tall Rajagopuram, which had recently developed cracks, caved in Wednesday night. Police said there was no loss of human life as all shops located near the structure had already been shifted. However, over 100 monkeys are feared dead in the incident.
The Rajagopuram was constructed in 1516 by Srikrishna Devaraya, the ruler of the Vijayanagara empire, to mark his visit to the temple as part of his march across the empire following his victory over his enemies.
On Tuesday, engineers, after an inspection of the seven-storeyed structure, had declared a 150-metre area around it as a danger zone. All shops in the area were then shifted, preventing a disaster.
Srikalahasti temple is among the most visited temples in Andhra Pradesh and is considered a must visit for anyone who visits the famed Tirupati temple.
The cracks had developed in the tower following recent rains. Rosaiah pointed out that few days ago, the government had approached Narasimha Rao, a professor of IIT Madras, to inspect the tower and recommend whether it could be repaired. However, the structure came crashing down even before he could inspect it.

Sri Kalahasti Gopuram collapsed



The ‘Gali Gopuram’ of famous Sri Kalahasti Temple located at Kalahasti city in Chitur district that was built 400 years ago by Raja Sri Krishna Devaraya developed huge cracks vertically splitting the marvellous structure into two parts. The crack developed is clearly visible and experts guess that it may collapse any time. Hence, the authorities of the temple tightened the structure with a huge wire mesh around it to avert further cracks. But, small pieces of the structure are falling down indicating the worsening condition of the structure. Temple authorities have erected fencing in the surroundings to avoid any untoward incident.
Some devotees who often visit the temple said that the structure has developed cracks long time ago, but the concerned authorities neglected to repair the structure in time, that’s why it developed cracks further.
If, we click on the image attached to this article, then we can notice the small crack in the structure the enlarged image, which is taken long time ago by the temple authorities. Still, they ignored it and placed in the temple’s official website as if nothing happened. The same small crack is now developed into huge splitting the structure into two pieces.
Experts, district Officials and temple authorities who studies the damage are said to be proposing to dismantle the 133 feet tall ancient structure and rebuild the same model in the same place.
 
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