Bhubaneswar: Following reports that the cyclone Fani has caused some damage to the Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri, Odisha government on Thursday urged the Centre to ask the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) to inspect the damage caused to the 12th-century shrine.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik requested Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma to depute a team of experts from ASI to assess the damage caused to the temple.
"It is reported that significant damage has been caused to the infrastructure of Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri. Even the Sun Temple is reportedly closed for tourists," Patnaik wrote to Sharma.
He said that the assessment is urgently required so that appropriate measures can be undertaken keeping in view the Rath Yatra festival scheduled for July 4.
The ASI is the custodian of the temples which reportedly suffered some damage by the cyclone that ripped apart the holy town on May 3. As the ASI was undertaking certain repair works of the main temple, it was fitted with about 5,000 iron poles. The scaffoldings crumbled after being slammed by Fani with a wind speed of 200 to 240 kmph. A lion statue also suffered minor damage as the scaffoldings collapsed on it.
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