Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam is constructing a shrine for Lord Venkateswara in the campus of Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari.
If everything goes according to plans, this temple which will come up in Kanyakumari on the land donated by Vivekananda Kendra will be a “twin” of the famous temple in Tirupati, albeit smaller in size, replicating all the paraphernalia and the rituals followed in Tirupati.
“Vivekananda Kendra has already handed over 4.68 acres from its campus to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) that administers the Tirupati temple. The registration process for the land was completed last week and the papers were handed over,” told the President of the Vivekananda Kendra, Sri P. Parameswaran,
Sri Anand Kumar Reddy, the Tamil Nadu local area committee chairperson of the TTD, explained the idea behind the project. “In 2010, the TTD conducted Srinivasa Kalyanam at Vivekananda Kendra. The response was overwhelming. While we expected only about 1.5 lakh devotees, close to 5 lakh people participated. This prompted TTD officials to think if it was the Lord’s way of conveying that he wanted to be in Kanyakumari. That was the starting point.”
The TTD, Reddy said, had set aside Rs 42.5 crore in the current year’s budget for the preliminary work on the shrine. “Land survey and soil testing will commence sometime this month and then a detailed project report will be drawn up and submitted for approval.”
The temple will also have a centre for teaching the Vedas and a shelter for cattle.
Vivekananda Kendra's public relations officer Sri K.P. Raghunathan Nair said the project was likely to be completed in five years and had the potential to change the landscape of the coastal town. The scenic locale, with the ocean on its south-eastern boundary, falls in Coastal Regulation Zone 2 and all requisite approvals were being obtained for the construction, Nair added.
