Bhubaneswar, May 13: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to personally intervene and save the Shri Jagannath Temple, the 12th century shrine, before "any unfortunate incident takes place".

Expressing concern at the decision of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to send another team to inspect the shrine which requires urgent repair, Naveen said the state would bear all the expenses for the repair work to protect the shrine, one of the four most important places of Hindu religion.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, he said the condition of the Jagmohan structure of the temple (the prayer hall) "is alarming due to severe distress resulting in dislodging of capital stone layers atop the pillar head of the four central columns". Extensive structural cracks in the stone beams over these columns supporting the pyramidal roofing structure have also been noticed. Incidents of falls of stones from the pockets have also been reported. Temporary structures are only provided to avoid any accidents, he said.

Coming down heavily on the ASI for delaying the repair work, he pointed out that a technical committee, constituted by the ASI that visited the temple, had recommended to support the Jagmohan with a stainless steel frame structure. Subsequently, the ASI began the restoration work.

"Unfortunately, the intervention scheme has been disapproved by the director general of ASI without proposing any alternative solution to avoid any unforeseen failure with suggestion for further study. We are highly concerned about such indifferent attitude of the ASI as any further delay in addressing the problem may lead to serious situation," he said.

Naveen reminded the Prime Minister how similar problems had occurred in the past at Sun Temple in Konark, the 13th century shrine, leading to the collapse of its "Jagmohan" pillar for which it had to be filled with sand to protect the monument thereby completely preventing entry inside.

He urged Modi to instruct the director general of ASI to reconsider the proposal and come up with a concrete solution as early as possible. Significantly, the Prime Minister had visited the temple while the repair work was going on in February this year.

The state government is reportedly peeved at the attitude of the ASI which has now decided to take the help of IIT, Madras, for further studies of the structure.

"We have been raising the issue for the last five years. They constituted a core committee to study this issue. The core committee had suggested a method and accordingly the work started. Suddenly, they halted the repair work and said anther committee would be formed to look into it. It will only delay the process," said a state government official.

Sources said if the ASI did not expedite the repair, the state government would reconsider its MoU with the ASI in which it had entrusted the responsibilities of repair work to the agency. "We can take our temple within six months by severing our MoU with them," the official said.