Of late, there has been a sharp increase in the strength of devotees visiting the abode of Sri Dharbaranyeswarar, popularly known as Sri Saneeswarar temple in Tirunallar near Karaikal.
Most important among them is the provision of accommodation centre (formerly known as cottage or yatri nivas).
“It is on Saturdays that the small town of Karaikal witnesses a sudden spurt, with thousands of devotees arriving as it is considered an auspicious day to pray to Lord Saneeswarar,” says V. Shanmugasundaram, Superintending Engineer, Public Works Department, which has taken up a massive project for the construction of accommodation centre for pilgrims. All these years, devotees had to depend on private houses which offered home stay with poor facilities.
Although the Tourism Department had constructed “yatri nivas”, it is inadequate to meet the huge demand for accommodation.
The government of Union Territory of Puducherry, under its Tirunallar Temple City Development Project, has taken up a work on building a motel on six acres of land. Being executed in three phases at the rate of one block in each phase, the first phase will have 50 rooms, 25 each on the ground-floor and first floor. The total area of the first block would be 4,524 square metres with 12 single bedrooms and 13 double bed-rooms. A restaurant will also come up as part of the project.
Two more blocks will be built in subsequent phases of the project with 100 more rooms.
The construction of the motel was a felt need of the devotees.
The rent will be fixed on a fair basis, the official told The Hindu .
