Thursday, December 29 2005 15:05 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: Construction of a Rs 100 crore Lord Balaji temple here, similar to the Lord Venkateswara temple at Tirumala near Tirupati, is likely to commence anytime in 2006.

The Tamil Nadu government's response to the request by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), which administers the famous hill shrine, for a five acre plot in the city had been 'very good', K Anandkumar Reddy, President of the Local Advisory Committee (LAC) of the TTD Information Centre here, told reporters today.

The land identification process was on. "We were shown four or five places in the city. But this has not been approved by our Agama and Vaasthu experts. However, soon the land will be identified and construction work is likely to commence in 2006", he said adding that once approved TTD would spend upto Rs 100 crore for the construction of the temple.

"The TTD board is keen to have a Balaji temple here as nearly two-thirds of devotees who come for darshan at Tirumala, are from Tamil Nadu", he said.

Briefing on the arrangemnts at the centre, which also has an idol of Lord Balaji, for New Year day, Reddy and LAC member R Srinivasan said for the first time in the history of the centre one lakh Ladus, made at Tirumala, would be made available to the devotees on January 1. Over one-lakh devotees are expected to have the darshan.

They said 50 per cent of the ladus would be distributed free to devotees on a first come first serve basis. The rest would be made available at the rate of Rs 10 per ladu. Also, no coconut breaking would be take place and only flowers or tulasi would be acceptable on that day.