The Chausathi Yogini temple at Hirapur on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, April 29: Dawn is approaching for the 9th century Chausathi Yogini temple at Hirapur on the outskirts of the city.

After years of neglect, the state government has finally started building infrastructure for tourists visiting the temple that is 15km from the city centre.

A tourist utility complex will have toilet facilities and a centre to display local handicraft products near the temple. Tourists will even be able to spend the night at a guesthouse with eight rooms near the complex.

The shrine has images of 64 yoginis standing in various postures. The image of the 10-armed presiding deity of the shrine, Mahamaya, is the largest. Historians and archaeologists say the structure was built in the 9th century AD.

Odisha Tourism will spend more than Rs 1 crore towards building the utility complex and renovating an ancient water body nearby. A grant of Rs 50 lakh from the ministry of tourism has been lying with the Khurda district administration for the past six years.

Principal secretary of tourism Ashok Kumar Tripathy convinced the district administration to release the funds and started work nearly two months ago on the temple complex through the Odisha Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC).

Tripathy said: “We will add Rs 50 lakh or more to the available funds and complete the work within six months. The water body will have six ghats and a parikrama or pathway that tourists can take to walk around the lake.”

Senior engineer, OTDC, J.K. Das said a guesthouse would also come up at the tourist complex for foreign tourists and researchers studying the yogini cult. The officials also plan a parking lot.

Sources said local artisans who make handicrafts such as palm leaf paintings, engravings, stonework and bell metal work will also have space to display their wares at the complex.

The Chausathi Yogini temple is well known for tantrik rituals. It is one among the four well-preserved yogini temples in the country. There is another yogini temple at Ranipur-Jharial near Titlagarh in Balangir district, while the other two are in Madhya Pradesh — south-west of Khajuraho near Chhatarpur and at Bhedaghat near Jabalpur.

The Chausathi Yogini temple is locally known as Mahamaya temple. It is a hypaethral (open) shrine facing the east. It was discovered by Kedarnath Mohapatra of the Odisha State Museum in 1953.

Niranjan Nayak, an artisan with a small studio near the Chausathi Yogini temple, however, said that despite all the development, the road connecting to temple was in a bad shape. Such is its condition during monsoon that tourists stay away. “The state government should repair the road on a priority basis,” he said.

Tourism secretary Tripathy told The Telegraph: “The department will ensure that the road leading to the yogini temple is developed.”