TTD team visits Jammu to inspect land for construction of Hindu temple

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) board has announced that TTD will soon begin construction works of a Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple in Jammu. A team of TTD officials, including the TTD Executive Officer (EO) Anil Kumar Singhal, left for Jammu on Friday to inspect the locations suitable for the temple construction. 

Speaking to the media on Friday, Anil Kumar Singhal said that the Government of Jammu had identified seven suitable locations for the temple construction. TTD officials have already visited these locations and shortlisted four among them. “Our team of officials have already visited all these places and selected four suitable places. Today we will be reaching Jammu to inspect those places and come to a final conclusion after negotiating with our officers”, Anil Kumar Singhal said on Friday. 

Earlier in December, TTD Chairman YV Subba Reddy had announced plans to build temples in other parts of India, including Mumbai, Varanasi and Jammu & Kashmir. He had said that the board had written to the Jammu & Kashmir administration, and had received a response saying the administration was willing to allot land for a TTD temple. 

The TTD is also planning to build temples in other locations across India, like Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi and Mumbai.  “The government of Maharashtra has already allotted land at Bandra in Mumbai, and a temple of Sri Venkateswara Swamy will be constructed soon at Rs 30 crore”, Anil Kumar Singhal said. Earlier, Subba Reddy had said that the TTD board had decided to write to the Uttar Pradesh government requesting allotment of land. 

Anil Kumar Singhal said that the TTD has already constructed Sri Venkateswara Swamy temples outside Andhra Pradesh at Kanyakumari, Hyderabad, and Kurukshetra, and that more temples are being built in Chennai, Visakhapatnam, and Bhubaneswar. The EO also announced that a ‘veda pathashala’, is coming up in Kurukshetra soon.