Cuttack, Dec. 20: Orissa High Court today asked the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to clear air on the final design approved for installing stainless steel box-type portal frames for supporting the stone beams inside the Jagmohan (prayer hall) of the Puri Jagannath temple.

The division bench of Chief Justice Vineet Saran and Justice B.R. Sarangi granted a day's time to assistant solicitor general Anup Bose to take instructions from the ASI on the issue and file a detailed affidavit and posted the matter for further hearing on December 22.

The ASI had submitted an affidavit - on the basis of a letter from the ASI's additional director general (conservation), New Delhi received on December 19 - that final design of the portal frame had been approved.

However, the affidavit failed to impress the court because there was nothing in it indicating that the difference in opinion between the local committee and IIT Madras over the assessment of load factor to support the beams had been resolved.

The court expected the ASI to clear confusion over the disagreement between the ASI and IIT Madras on the portal frame.

The court has been monitoring the renovation being carried out by the ASI at the temple as part of adjudication of a PIL seeking intervention for effective and timely completion of the repair of Jagamohan.

Cuttack resident Abhisek Das had filed the PIL that was taken up first on June 8.

On November 21, the court had appointed an accredited engineer as commission of inquiry to make an on-the-spot assessment of the progress of renovation and ascertain the veracity of the claims that ASI had made in an affidavit related to the status of repair work.

The accredited engineer Nagendra Kumar Mohanty, also an advocate, who had visited the temple on November 26, had submitted his report to the court in a sealed cover on December 7. The court opened the report on Tuesday.

In his report, Mohanty said there had been an impasse over finalisation of the design due to a controversy over evaluation of the load on each of the four columns.

While the core committee had assessed it to be 450 tonnes per column, experts from IIT Madras had initially estimated it to be 600 tonnes and later scaled it down to 240 metric tonnes per column. The disagreement had delayed execution of the work.

"The court expected a detailed affidavit supported by all documents related to proposed design, opinion of core committee and opinion of experts of IIT Madras and the final design approved for execution of the repair work.

The work of providing stainless steel box-type portal frame support to the beams is vital because it covers 50 per cent of all conservation work.

The restoration plan also includes strengthening of the stone columns by jacketing or confining with stainless steel sheets and fixing of stainless steel pocket frames inside the Jagamohan.

According to experts, the roof of Jagamohan rests mainly on four central stone columns (pillars) supported with eight stone beams.

The sloped walls at the four sides are called corbels with two layers (lower and upper). Cracks have appeared on the beams and pillars.

The ASI had planned a portal frame support for the cracked stone beams including four sets of box frames in the form of an external support system fabricated out of steel plates underneath the stone beams.