ASI To Remove Sands From Sanctum Sanctorum Of Odisha’s Konark Temple

Konark: After a series of debates and deliberations, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has finally decided to remove the sands from the sanctum sanctorum of the Konark Sun Temple.

A decision to this effect was taken at the two-day national conference on conservation of the Sun Temple, which concluded here on Saturday.

Talking to mediapersons later, Union Culture Minister Prahlad Singh Patel said the people of the country want that the 13^th century heritage temple should remain intact for another 500-700 years. The Britishers had filled the sands inside the sanctum sanctorum of the temple in 1905. Now, the people want them to be removed. The Centre is waiting for a final report on this issue and will take a decision.

Member of the ASI Technical Core Committee NC Pal said a number of experts have recommended removal of sands and reinforce the sanctum sanctorum with either steel and concrete beams. “The conference had intense deliberations on this issue and it has been unanimously decided that the sands should be removed from inside he sanctum sanctorum. Discussions were held on the opening of the sanctum sanctorum,” he added.

The conference discussed the GPR study, endoscopy, structural analysis and geo-technical investigation reports of the Central Building Research Institute (CBRI). The visual study report of the institute has revealed that the sanctum sanctorum has sands up to a height of about 5 metres while the stones on the east, west and north side of the sanctum sanctorum have been displaced.