By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 1 Jun: Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami today held a review meeting regarding the first phase of the ‘Manaskhand Mandir Mala Mission’ project, which aims to improve the infrastructure and connectivity of 16 temples in Kumaon and to improve their linkage with each other. The meeting was held at the CM’s official residence here today.
He directed that the work being done on redevelopment and improving the infrastructure of these temples under the Mission should be expedited. He also directed that creating better transportation facilities along the routes of temples along with other necessary development needed should be completed in a well planned and time bound manner.
He added that better arrangements for hotels, home stays, etc., will also have to be made for the devotees, so that they can stay near the temples or along the route. Whatever work being done under the Mission, should be done keeping in mind the expected number of devotees visiting these religious places in the next 20 to 25 years.
The Chief Minister said work would continue on providing better facilities for the devotees to visit these temples. Road connectivity will have to be further strengthened. He directed the officials of the Public Works Department to speed up the ongoing work of road widening, improvement and laying bitumen for the Manaskhand Corridor.
It may be recalled that, currently, the work is under progress for redevelopment of the 16 temples during the first phase of the Mission.
The temples that have been included in the first phase are Jageshwar Mahadev Temple in district Almora, Chitai Goljyu Temple, Suryadev Temple Katarmal, Kasar Devi Temple, Nanda Devi Temple, Patal Bhuvaneshwar Temple in district Pithoragarh, Haat Kalika Temple, Bagnath Temple in district Bageshwar, Baijnath Temple, Patal Rudreshwar in district Champawat, Maa Purnagiri Temple, Maa Barahi Devi Temple, Baleshwar Temple, Nainadevi Temple in Nainital District, Kainchidham (Neem Karoli) Temple in Nainital and Chaitidham Temple in Udham Singh Nagar district.
Chief Secretary Dr SS Sandhu, Additional Chief Secretary Radha Raturi, Secretaries R Meenakshi Sundaram, Shailesh Bagoli, Dr Pankaj Kumar Pandey, Vinay Shankar Pandey, Director General, Information, Bansidhar Tiwari and officers of Public Works Department (PWD) were present at the meeting.
