MADURAI, INDIA, January 22, 2008: Renovation work on the towers of Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple, part of the ongoing works for kumbabishekam conducted every 12 years, began on Sunday.
In this phase, the four Rajagopurams (north, east, west and south towers), thanga vimanam and Ainthunilai Mukuruni Vinayakar Gopuram would be completely renovated. While the works on east tower alone would cost Rs. 290,000, around Rs. 250,000 would be spent on the remaining towers.
“Donors have come forward to bear the cost for all the towers,” Joint Commissioner of the temple, B. Raja, said. He added that the works would take around eight months to be completed. Each and every compartment in the internal parts of the towers would be cleaned and wherever necessary patch works would be done. “The sculptures on the temple towers, a speciality of this city, will be cleaned thoroughly and damages attended to. Photographs will be taken before commencement of any work. The entire process will be well documented,” he said.
The temple authorities have also planned to install a lightning conductor in the north tower. It would have a effect radius of 10 km, with equipment imported from France, covering the entire temple premises and also the surroundings areas. Construction works will also ensure that no rain water stagnated as it results in growth of weeds.