Cuttack, April 29: Music lovers are in for a treat as the district administration here has launched an album consisting of 16 hitherto unheard songs of Akshaya Mohanty.

The audio CD contains songs that are not available in the market and have been collected from various individuals.

The album was launched at a charity concert organised by the district administration yesterday to generate funds to save Bichitra Barna, the ancestral house of Akshaya Mohanty, from auction.

The audio CD features eight songs and eight medleys in two tracks of 42-minute duration.

“Our objective is to bring before connoisseurs the songs of Akshaya Mohanty which were previously unheard,” said Saroj Singh, advisor of the organising committee.

Singh further said that these days, singers were only singing popular songs of Mohanty, but the release of this album would help them listen to new tracks of the legendary singer and perform.

The charity programme organised by the district administration, the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) and a voluntary organisation called Green Projects at Saheed Bhavan here yesterday evening has generated Rs 6 lakh for Mohanty’s ancestral house.

“We will soon pay the money to a nationalised bank which has served an auction notice of the house on the family members of Mohanty,” said secretary of Green Projects Ullas Behura.

The auction notice was served by the bank a few months ago as the family members of Mohanty defaulted in paying the instalments of two separate loans amounting to about Rs 10 lakh.

“We have been successful in collecting money to protect the house of Mohanty from auction. The funds, which amount to about Rs 6 lakh, will be handed over to the bank to clear the first loan, which amounts to about Rs 5.80 lakh. Many other individuals have agreed to contribute another Rs 4 lakh which we hope to be able to collect in the next 15 days,” Behura said.

Apart from the audio CD, a souvenir containing information about the life of Mohanty was also released on the occasion.

The 88-page souvenir contains essays written by eminent writers, poets and others, including Devdas Chhotray and Manoj Patnaik. The souvenir also contains lyrics of about 81 unheard songs of Mohanty that have been collected from his personal diary.