SHIMLA, HIMACHAL PRADESH, INDIA, December 7, 2008: The government has agreed to relocate 12 of the 28 submerged temples in Gobind Sagar lake at Bhakra Dam reservoir in Bilaspur, said the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal in Shimla on Thursday. The Archaeological Survey of India has declared the temples, which have been under water for over four decades, as monuments of “national importance.”
Locals allowed the submersion of their temples to pave the way for the completion of India’s first hydro electric power plant in 1963. Minister Dhumal said in a statement that he has highlighting the sentiments of the residents of Bilaspur town who had been worshipping at the temples for generations. Dhumal said the the government respected the sentiments of displaced people during the Nagarjuna sagar and Narmada valley projects and the same will be done in this case.