Bhubaneswar, July 9: Any regular commuter, walking along the dingy lanes of old town area, might spot some sweating artisans working on blocks of sandstone along the west banks of the sacred Bindusagar Tank.

A closer look reveals that the artisans mean business and some serious work has been going on the site for the past six months.

The area around the tank is being converted into a medicinal plant garden, with all the elements of Ekamra Kshetra in mind — a mythological garden.

The finished park would have a large mango tree to welcome visitors. The tree is supposed to resemble the holy one, under which Shiva meditated. “Ekamra or ‘ek amra’ means ‘a mango tree’.

The park would be called after the tree, which would symbolise Shiva,” said Lingaraj Otta, divisional forest-officer of Bhubaneswar forest division.

Otta and forest officials had to turn through the pages of Ekamra Puranas and collect every minute detail that could be included.

The garden, that would cost Rs 72 lakhs, would also have an amla tree (symbolising Parvati) and a bel symbolising Ganesha. The three would have their own pedestals with substructures on which medicinal herbs would be planted.

Anupam Shah director (projects) explained: “The idea is to bring back old glory of the sacred area. For that we took rounds of the old town to get an idea of the ancient town. Also, having herbs around the mother trees would mean that they would receive the water filtered through the herbal plants.”

The park would have two large pools in between the trees that would contain naturally-purified water seeping in through the earth from Bindusagar.

Before construction began the authorities resorted to ancient folklore to get a basic idea of how the place used to be. With the help from the puranas, the forest department has selected around 180 indigenous medicinal plants.

Coming back to the park, there would be a small platform for music to add to the holy ambience.

Artisans from Raghurajpur and Lalitgiri have been engaged to complete the work that is expected to be over by the next month.

“The old town area is a reflection of human engineering and intelligence and we are trying our best to make the tradition come alive. We have used nothing except sandstone and laterite,” said Shah.

Also keeping in tune with the entire theme, the boundary and retaining wall would bear exquisite carvings depicting the lord and his stay at the Ekamra Kshetra.

Shah, who has worked for several heritage conservation projects before this, is excited about this project which he claims is “going to be an exemplar for the urban renewal mission”.

“Cities like Bhubaneswar are very important in terms of heritage, tourism and religion. Its our department’s responsibility to check that the temple city gets its historical and architectural glory back. If this effort succeeds, we will definitely carry on with other projects,” said Otta.