Bhubaneswar: Odisha Bridge & Construction Corporation Limited (OBCC) has sought over 13,141 Cubic Meter (cum) Khondalite stones for execution of several development projects around Shree Jagannath temple and other places in Puri district.
OBCC has urged the Department of Works to ask the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) to supply 13141.83 cum Khondalite stones of various sizes for timely completion of the projects.
The stone will be abundantly used for development of the heritage security zone around the 12th century Shree Jagannath Temple, Shree JagannathBallav Pilgrim Centre, Shree Loknath Temple, Shree Gundicha Temple Project, PramodUdyan, Municipal Market complex, Atharnala Heritage Project, Puri Lake Development Project, development of AcharyaHarihar square and renovation of heritage lakes of Puri such as Sweta Ganga, Markanda, Narendra and Indradyumna.
Highest 3308 cum stones will be used in the Shree JagannathBallav Pilgrim Centre while 1941 cum stones will be required for the Heritage Corridor Project and 1557 cum for development of various lakes in Puri town.
The OBCC has also informed the Department of Works that 5817 cum of Khondalite rocks will also be used for execution of SAMALEI Plan being undertaken for development of Samaleswari temple in Sambalpur.
Further, the stones of different sizes have been sought for repair and renovation of the other heritage projects taken up for redevelopment of EkamraKshetra (old town) area, Cuttack ChandiMandir, KontiloNilamadhab Temple, MaaSarala Temple and BaripadaJagannath Temple.
In total, the OBCC said 27422 cum of Khondalite rocks is required for execution of all the above projects.
Earlier, the State Government had reserved six Khondalite mines for use of the Khondalite rocks for the heritage projects taken up under the ABADHA scheme and other schemes.
The Khondalite blocks located at Chandia (4 acre), Sukhuapada (78.3 acre) and Teligarh (27.5 acre) in Jajpur district, Gobindpur (20.3 acre) in Cuttack district, Kurumpada decorative stone block (1.67 acre) in Khordha and KundakundiKunda stone quarry (4.67 acre) of Narangarh in Khordha district have been reserved for OMC.
These minor mineral blocks have been reserved in favour of state-owned Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC), which will explore these blocks and supply the minerals (rocks) to the project executing agencies including OBCC.
Since most of the ancient temples in Odisha are built using the Khondalite stones, all the above heritage projects will be developed by using the Khondalite stones to maintain the Kalinga architecture style, official sources said.