Portion Of Tamil Nadu's Srirangam Temple Collapses, None Hurt; Restoration Work Begins

A portion of one of Tamil Nadu’s Arulmigu Ranganathaswamy temple in Srirangam collapsed on Saturday. No casualties were reported in the incident and the restoration work has been initiated by the temple authorities.

The portion of the Damodara Krishnankoil gopuram that collapsed was a stone façade with minor sculptures. It is located on the second tier of the Gopuram at one of the towers at the eastern entrance, Times Of India reported.

The famous Srirangam temple of Tamil Nadu has a total of 21 gopurams (towers).

According to locals, they had earlier flagged cracks and crevices on the temple’s structure, to the authorities.

The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department that manages the temple had raised an estimate of Rs 98 lakh just a few days back for the restoration work.

There was no public movement around the tower of the temple when a part of the structure collapsed at around 2 AM.

The restoration work is likely to be completed in a few months and the temple’s charitable trust will oversee the process.

“Earlier, we sanctioned Rs 67 lakh to strengthen and renovate the gopuram. The sum was revised to Rs 98 lakh recently. Scaffolding erection works will commence shortly. Gopuram will be renovated without altering the heritage, and a tender will be published soon to launch the permanent strengthening works,” Joint Commissioner of HR&CE, S Sivaramkumar told TOI.

He further added that the structure of the gopuram is stable and intact.

The entrance of the damaged gopuram was barricaded to prevent public movement around the tower on Sunday.

For the unversed, the Sri Ranganathaswamy is a Hindu temple dedicated to Ranganatha, a form of Vishnu. It is one of the most illustrious Vaishnava temples in South India.

The temple is built in the Dravidian architectural style and is uniquely distinct for being the most important of the 108 Divya Desams.

(With inputs from ANI)