Cuttack, July 22: The works department has informed Orissa High Court that it will complete installation of stainless steel support to the ceiling of Puri Jagannath temple's Jagmohan (prayer hall) by October 31.

Works department chief engineer (buildings) Satya Ranjan Sethi filed an affidavit in the court and said the work on buttressing of the corbels with stainless steel support system would be "completed by October 31".

Corbels are projections jutting out from the wall to support the ceiling inside the Jagmohan. Orissa High Court-appointed commission of inquiry said the process to provide stainless steel support to the corbels had started.

The court has appointed an accredited engineer, Nagendra Kumar Mohanty (also an advocate), as commission of inquiry to make on-spot assessment of the work's progress.

The works department had undertaken the corbel renovation on request of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), after it completed the installation of stainless steel portal frame to support the cracked stone beams inside the prayer hall on June 2.

Mohanty informed the court in a report that the work on providing stainless steel support to the corbels had been taken up as an extension of the portal frame system.

The Jagmohan roof rests mainly on four central stone columns (pillars) supported with eight stone beams. There are cracks on the beams and pillars posing threat to the structure. The work to provide stainless steel box-type portal frame support to the beams was vital as it covered 50 per cent of all the conservation work. "Providing stainless steel support to the corbels of the roof ceiling is also a vital part of the conservation," the commission of inquiry said in its report submitted in court on Wednesday.

"Taking note of the chief engineer's affidavit, the division bench of Chief Justice Vineet Saran and Justice K.R. Mohapatra posted the matter to November 8, along with an update on the progress of renovation of Jagmohan," central government counsel Chandrakanta Pradhan said.

"Accordingly, the court has directed the state works department and the ASI to file status reports on the work progress by November 8," Pradhan said.

The court has been monitoring the renovation work undertaken by the ASI at the temple as part of adjudication of a PIL seeking intervention for effective and timely completion of Jagmohan repair. Cuttack resident Abhisek Das filed the PIL. It was first taken up on June 8 last year.

In his report, Mohanty told the court that the ASI had provided stainless steel beams below the cracked stone slabs in west side inside Jagmohan. "Work in the south and east sides is in progress and will be completed by 15 to 20 days," the report said.

The ASI (Bhubaneswar circle), in its status report, told the court: "Installation of load monitoring cells to the stainless steel box portal frame provided with remote monitoring system is also in process, which has been assigned to the Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee, for constant monitoring of performance of the support system."