Repair Work Of Puri Jagannath Temple Ratna Bhandar To Begin After GPR Survey: Law Minister

Bhubaneswar: Amid speculations over likelihood of a secret chamber in Ratna Bhandar of Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri, Odisha’s Law Minister said a survey through ground penetrating radar (GPR) will be conducted before undertaking repair work of the treasury.

The move to conduct a GPR survey assumes significance as several devotees as well as experts are of the view that a secret chamber may be present inside the Ratna Bhandar of the 12th century shrine. Devotees as well as servitors are in favour of a thorough survey to ascertain whether any secret chamber really exists inside it.

Apart from experts and others, Puri Gajapati Dibyasingha Deb has also underlined the need for conducting a laser scanning of Ratna Bhandar to examine the structure.

The Law Minister said that a GPR survey and other technical assessment will be conducted in order to obtain a clear picture of the Ratna Bhandar structure.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has been entrusted with the responsibility of conducting a GPR survey and other technical jobs in collaboration with IIT to ascertain if there is any secret chamber inside Ratna Bhandar, Harichandan told media.

Experts said GPR is a geophysical locating method that uses radio waves to capture images below the surface of the ground in a minimally invasive way. The advantage is that it allows crews to pinpoint the location of underground utilities without disturbing the ground.

After completion of all these surveys, the repair work of Ratna Bhandar will be taken up, the Minister said.

It may be noted that Ratna Bhandar was opened on July 14 and 18 and the valuables were shifted from both outer and inner chambers to a temporary strong room set up inside the temple complex. Thereafter, the empty chests and almirahs were shifted to Niladri Museum on August 23.