Bhubaneswar: Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) and the Kalinga Heritage Preservation Trust (KHPT) members have urged Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for construction of a Global Sun temple in the state.
In a memorandum to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the members of both organisations have expressed that it would be highly impossible to undertake such a grand and herculean project without the support of Odisha government.
The members have expressed that the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya was successfully completed as it was a matter of national pride, the Sun Temple will also be a structure of global pride.
At a meeting in Bhubaneswar Sunday, INTACH Odisha chapter Convenor Amiya Bhusan Tripathy said both INTACH and KHPT had several meetings and seminars on the subject of Konark and its conservation in the last decade.
Being the only UNESCO world heritage site in the State, Konark is tottering on the brink of becoming a glorious ruin, he said.
Due to the ravages of time and nature, and because of inadequate measures for conservation, Konark may be reduced to a mound of shapeless stones in the near future.
Chairman and Founder of the KPTH Trust Anil De said that Konark is great not only for its beautiful stone sculptures, it has a lot of intangible heritage presented in the stone art.
This intangible heritage, he said, deserves to be preserved in a new form as they are important for contemporary society.
In a research spanning over a decade, KHPT has designed a Global Sun Temple in the architectural, spiritual and social essence of the fallen Konark.
It has been designed as a modern temple for the contemporary world, without being a carbon copy of the existing temple which will showcase the art and architecture of temples of Odisha and its iconography. The project cost is envisaged to be around Rs 400 crore, he said.
This secular temple of the Sun God, Anil De said will also attract tourists and visitors from far and wide due to its novel concept and presentation.
UNI
