Tiruvannamalai golden chariot to be renovated in a month

The golden chariot kept on the temple’s third pragaram used to be pulled by devotees to fulfill their pending vows around the pragaram near the ‘Kili’ gopuram.

The decision to refurbish the chariot was taken after two devotees offered to donate Rs 3.50 lakh for the work. When asked about this, temple joint commissioner R Gnanasekaran said, “The money is enough to carry out the renovation work, which will be completed within a month.”

The chariot has a long history from the time of its inception in early 2006. The chariot, which was readied at a cost of Rs 87 lakh, was certified for use by devotees after a successful trial run on March 16, the same year.

From the start, devotees would make a beeline pull the 16-foot chariot to fulfill vows. However, authorities suspended the chariot pulling practice by devotees in 2015 to make arrangements for the temple’s kumbabhishekam, which was scheduled on February 6, 2017.

Bowing to repeated requests from devotees to resume the use of the chariot after the kumbabhishekam. But, by then the chariot had suffered extensive erosion in the wooden and gold coated portions.

Gnanasekaran added that though the temple sent an estimate to the State government after the kumbabishekam, the low tender floated for the work created problems and the chariot remained unusable nearly for two years. Now with a couple of devotees offering to donate cash for the renovation of the chariot, he assured that it would be put to use shortly.