Gaya: The Mahabodhi temple management has outsourced development programmes in the shrine and its adjoining areas to the Bihar State Bridge Construction Corporation Limited.
District magistrate (DM)-cum-committee chairman Abhishekh Singh on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the corporation in this regard. The DM confirmed having signed the MoU. Managing director of the corporation Umesh Kumar signed the documents on the firm's behalf.
Executing development projects in and around the shrine is easier said than done as agencies like Unesco and Archaeological Survey of India have to be taken on-board. At the time of notifying Mahabodhi temple as a World Heritage Site in June, 2002, the Unesco issued a set of guidelines on the maintenance and conservation of the shrine.
According to the guidelines, no new construction or repair work can be undertaken in 500m radius of the shrine's outer walls. The world cultural body even favoured relocation of all non-religious structures from the area to make it serene and in sync with its status as the abode of peace.
The world cultural body also wanted the height of buildings to be fixed at 3m within a radius of 1km of the shrine and 10m in the area falling between 1km and 2km of the shrine's outer wall.
The BTMC chairman also signed another MoU on Friday with Happy Hands Project. According to its terms and conditions, the agency will collect all flowers offered in the shrine and process them to make organic dye for the khadi and the handloom sector.
Not only flowers offered at the shrine, those used for shrine decoration will be collected and processed for dye-making. "Output of such flowers is significantly high in the tourist season when several Buddhist organisations hold peace congregations and prayers. According to a rough estimate, on an average 50kg of flowers is offered in the shrine daily," said DM Abhishekh Singh.
The development work, according to sources, has been entrusted to the Bridge Construction Corporation for two reasons - the shrine committee does not have the expertise required for the purpose and more importantly, the committee will concentrate on shrine maintenance and fund management in a more effective manner.
