Chief minister Chandrababu Naidu unveiled an ambitious plan to develop Srisailam, the shrine of Lord Mallikarjuna, into a major temple town in South India. Reviewing the program with the officials today the chief minister said twin towns of Srisailam, and Sunnipenta would be developed into towns with all amenities like Tirumala and Tirupati. Around the temple town, located on the picturesque Nallamala ranges, four or five townships will be developed in an extent of five thousand acres. He asked the officials to remove all the illegal structures in Sunnipenta and Srisailam. An eight kilometre ring road also is being planned around Srisailam. He instructed official to get the necessary clearance from the union ministry of environment and forests. The plan will be implemented at a cost of Rs 144.17 crore.
As per the plan, Srisailam temple will be developed on the lines of Tirumala Tirupati temple, with regard to the amenities to the pilgrims. The idea behind the plan is to make the Shaivite town an important centre in the country’s temple tourism map. He asked the officials to widen the Mada streets of Srisailam as proposed by the endowments department. He cautioned that the development should strictly be as per Vastu. “None of your activities should hurt the sentiments of devotees,” he said.
Though Srisailam, a part of Kurnool district, is an important pilgrim centre of Andhra Pradesh, the temple town has never received an adequate attention from the government in the past. It was the then chief minister NT Ramarao, who first thought of bringing the town into limelight. To make it a cultural centre, NT Ramarao set up a school of Telugu University and he himself inaugurated it. He picked noted pre-historic archaeologist Prof Timmareddy of Andhra University as the dean of the school. NTR set up a residential school for Tribal students. He launched Chenchu project for the welfare and made Srisailam headquarters and another Andhra University professor Sastri appointed director of the Chenchu project. The Telugu university school, though still existing, lost its luster and is much neglected unit now. Exactly after more 25 years, the forgotten jewel of Nallamala forests, has found place the state government’s development plan. In fact, there had been a proposal to make Srisailam the centre of Telugu university.
As the state government is planning to develop Kurnool-Amravati highway via Dornala, Srisailam,which is just 50 km from Dornala, is expected to get huge flow of pilgrims. The CM instructed the official to plan the development in such a way that staying at Srisailam should be a pleasant experience. Besides endowments minister P Manikyalarao, all senior officials of the department also participated in the meeting.
