Devotees on Dhabaleswar Jhoola to reach the Shiv shrine. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Nov. 15: Periphery development of Dhabaleswar temple, a well-known ancient Shiv shrine, on an island on the Mahanadi river, will shortly begin.

“To make Dhabaleswar more attractive to tourists, the Odisha Tourism Development Corporation will undertake peripheral development with a central assistance of Rs 4 crore under the destination development programme,” Cuttack collector Girish S.N. told The Telegraph today.

“Around 1,87,500sqft near the temple have been identified for the purpose. The district administration has started the process for providing the land,” Girish said.

“Major components of this project include an entrance plaza consisting of a tourist reception centre with a statue of Lord Shiv on top of it, landscaped park and an open air gallery,” executive engineer of the corporation A.K. Jena said.

“In the first phase, work on the entrance plaza will be undertaken. Expression of Interests will shortly be invited for it,” Jena said. “The height of the Shiv statue will be decided on the basis of the availability of funds,” he said.

Though the temple architecture seems to be of recent origin, the artefacts show creations of 10th century AD. Historians, for that reason, think that the temple is an ancient structure and could have been renovated later owing to periodic damage following natural calamities.

Temple priest Binayak Patri, whose family has been engaged in worshipping the deity for generations, said: “People from all states of eastern India and other regions visit the temple. Though Shivratri and Bada Osha are two major festivals, Dhabaleswar mela, too, attracts huge crowd.”