Puri: Even as culture activists have raised objection to the heritage corridor project in Odisha’s Puri town for posing threat to several historical structures, the future of a secret tunnel from a centuries-old mutt near Jagannath Temple that has unexplored till date remains uncertain.
According to sources, the secret tunnel opens from a closed room of 550-year-old Gangamata mutt near Jagannath temple. It was proposed to be explored by archaeological experts under Pilgrim Rejuvenation And Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) scheme of the Central government.
The Centre wanted to ascertain where the tunnel leads to, its period of construction, why it was constructed and what purpose it served at the time. When Aravind Aggarwal was Puri collector, the district administration constituted a committee to carry out the proposal.
Following several meetings of the committee, it was decided that a team of experts would go inside the tunnel to know the details. As per the decision, the team of experts also made several attempts to explore the tunnel. But they failed to move deeper into the narrow tunnel due to oxygen deficiency inside and lack of space to carry equipment for lighting up the place.
Though unconfirmed, legends state that the tunnel was deliberately kept secret and used by the members of royal families of Puri to go to the temple in case of attack by outsiders to loot the temple, particularly during Mughal rule.
With the state government taking measures for protection and preservation of heritage structures, the locals have demanded to bring the facts about the secret tunnel to light through scientific methods.
