New chairman takes over charge of Taratarini Development Board

TARATARINI DEVELOPMENT BOARD
Regd. No.: GJM No. - 7177-A – 676/2002-2003
Hillpatna, Berhampur – 5, (Ganjam), Orissa(0680) 2215168, E-Mail:rdcbmp@ori.nic.in,
Website:http:/taratarini.nic.inPress ReleaseShri Chandrasekhar Kumar, IAS and the new Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC) of Southern Division, Odisha has taken over the chairmanship of the Tara Tarini Development Board (TTDB), considered as one of the prominent temple administration of the State. This famous prehistoric religious hill shrine is believed to be the Sthana Peetha (Breast Shrine) of Mata Sati and one amongst the 4 major ancient Shakti centers in India.
As per the convention of the Board, Mr Kumar who has recently joined as the RDC, Southern Division is replacing the outgoing RDC and the Chairman of TTDB Shri Satyabrata Sahu, who has since joined as the Commerce & Transport secretary of Government of Orissa.
It is noteworthy that Shri Satyabrata Sahu’s Chairmanship was eventful as it marked the completion of the 1st phase of the magnificent stone temple at Taratarini Hill Shrine. During his tenure the Board has successfully completed the Work of the main temple for the Twin Goddesses, Initiated the work of widening of the 999 holy steps with rest sheds, Widening the roads leading to the hilltop, Providing drinking water facility on the hill top, Constructed the first Arial “Rope Way” of Eastern India for fastest communication of visitors and Started massive plantation in and around the hill shrine for the maintenance of eco-system.
After taking over the charge Shri Kumar visited the holy shrine and discussed the status of the 2nd phase of work, which is going to commence soon to fulfill the basic requirements of the visitors. Board secretary Shri Pramod Panda and other board members tabled the primary draft of the second phase of work and it was decided that after through consultation, the Board will shortly start the 2nd phase work and will try its best to complete the on going projects before the commencement of the forthcoming Chaitra Mela.The TTDB members, office bearers and the temple administration while congratulating Shri Kumar expressed the hope that the Hill Shrine will become a great center of religious and tourist importance in the country under his chairmanship.
It is worth mentioning that the second phase work of the temple which will start soon includes; Construction of a huge multipurpose complex on the hilltop, four side-temples, boundary wall and outer protection wall / river side retaining wall to check land sliding and soil erosion at the hilltop.Construction of administrative office on the hilltop.Construction of Bhog Bazaar on the hilltop.Construction of Mundan shade on the hilltop.Construction of a big public utilities complex.Construction of waiting hall for the Rope-way on the hilltop.Further development of Arial Rope-way.Arrangement of space to accommodate the buildings for ATMs, Lockers, Shoe stands and other facilities.Completion of Kalyana Mandapam.Construction of huge parking space at the hilltop.Flood lighting arrangements at the hilltop and inside the temple premises. Lighting arrangement on the 999 holy stone steps and road leading to the Hilltop from Taratarini junction.Further widening of stone steps and arrangement of public utilities/ rest houses.Further widening of the existing road to the Hilltop.Maintenance of eco-system in and around the sacred hill by huge plantation in its nearby areas.Construction of a hospital.Construction of a residential school and training centre for the physically challenged etc.
Regards,

R P Tripathy

Chandrasekhar Kumar takes over as the chairman of Taratarini Development Board

BERHAMPUR: Shri Chandrasekhar Kumar, IAS and the new Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC) of Southern Division has taken over the chairmanship of the Tara Tarini Development Board, considered as one of the prominent temple administration and development bodies of the State. As per the convention of the Board, Mr Kumar who has recently joined as the RDC, southern division is replacing the outgoing RDC and the Chairman of TTDB Shri Satyabrata Sahu, who has since joined as the Commerce & Transport secretary of Government of Orissa. Shri Sahu’s Chairmanship was eventful as it marked the completion of 1st phase of the magnificent stone temple at Taratarini Hill Shrine and the shrine and its peripheral areas witnessed massive development in the past few years.
The TTDB members and office bearers while congratulating Shri Kumar expressed the hope that the Hill Shrine will become a great center of religious and tourist importance in the country under his chairmanship. It is worth mentioning that the second phase of the temple, which includes construction of a massive complex for the devotees and the construction of four side-temples, boundary walls, social initiatives apart from many other small projects and plantation drive, have started recently.

Prince Dance Group visited the famous Maa Tara Tarini Hill Shrine

Met the Chief Minister Mr. Naveen Patnaik

Immediately after landing in Berhampur from Mumbai after winning the India’s Got Talent (IGT) award, the Prince Dance Group leader T Krishna Mohan Reddy with all his team members, visited the famous Adi Shakti Peetha of Maa Tara Tarini to seek her divine blessing on August 24. The famous Taratarini Hill Shrine, considered as the Sthana Peetha (Breast Shrine) of Mata Sati, is one amongst the four major ancient Shakti centers (Adi Shakti Peetha) of India and an important prehistoric religious center which bears an uninterrupted history of 6000 years.
Paying obeisance to Maa Tara Tarini at the hill shrine, Krishna said Prince Dance Group has come to this position only for the blessing of the Adi Shakti Maa Tara Tarini and he has also given out details how he is now receiving invitations from abroad. Chairman of ‘Tara Tarini Development Board’ and the Revenue Divisional Commissioner of Southern Orissa, Shri Satyabrat Sahu, organized the Darshan and Prasad Seva at the holy shrine. All other members of the Development Board were present on the occasion. Pradip Panigrahi, MLA Gopalpur and other local leaders were also accompanied the Group.
Krishna expressed gratefulness to the State Administration, which has come as a great help to his group. He said that now they have decided to run a professional dance Academy with the support of the state Government at Berhampur.
Life of Krishna and his colleagues have changed after winning the top most award of IGT show. Now all of them are in high spirits. Telephone calls from foreign countries are pouring in.
He added, thanks to the success in India’s Got Talent Show, invitations are almost raining. After the successful debut in a national forum, Krishna Mohan Reddy on 23 August got a call from US. The organizers from US have invited the Prince Dance Group to perform Dasavatar.
On 24 August another event management group from US has also invited them to perform the typical dance. Call from Singapore came to Krishna to visit the country for performance.
Orissa Chief Minister is taking personal interest and making all arrangements to make them happy, admitted Krishna. “I have never seen an ever loving Naveen Patnaik, who gave me a foreign chocolate, which I have never tasted in life”. CM is taking all care and we are indebted to him for his kindness Krishna said. Later reaching Bhubaneswar, Prince Dance Group met the Chief Minister. Mr. Naveen Patnaik patted on their back and organized their visit to Lord Jagannath Puri. And the Chief Minister promised them all out support, said Krishna.

TaraTarini Hill Shrine among the most visited destinations of India

The famous Taratarini Hill Shrine (the Sthana Peetha (Breast Shrine) of Mata Sati, one amongst the 4 major ancient Shakti centers in India. and an important prehistoric religious center which bears an uninterrupted history of 6000 years), near Berhampur city is gradually emerging as the popular destination of visitors in Orissa.
According to the data available from the ‘Taratarini Development Board’, this year on the auspicious occasion of the holy month of Chaitra (March / April 2009) at the Taratarini Hill Shrine more than 17 lakh devotees visited the Breast Shrine within a month from various states of India and abroad for a Darshan of the Twin Goddesses. It is noteworthy, that the four holy Tuesdays of the month of Chaitra are famous for Shakti Puja in this Breast Shrine of Mata Sati. So, every year lakhs of devotees visit this shrine on these days.
It is worth mentioning that this year, particularly in the four famous Tuesdays around 12 lakh devotees have visited and in other days around 5 lakh visited to the Hill Shrine
Amongst them around 13,00,000 visitors are from Orissa, 2,00,000 from Andhra Pradesh around 1,00,000 from West Bengal and the rest mainly from Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Assam and other States.
However, this year the number of visitors from overseas has gone down compared to previous years. This time around a thousand foreigners visited during this month to the famous holy Shrine.
However, the figures available from various source reveals that this year’s gathering has surpassed the records of earlier years and with 17 lakh visitors this holy Shrine virtually has established a new record amongst the religious destinations of the country.The Statistics:First Tuesday of Chaitra total number of devotees visited, about: 1,92,000
Second Tuesday of Chaitra total number of devotees visited, about: 3,98,000
Third Tuesday of Chaitra total number of devotees visited, about: 4,80,000
Fourth Tuesday of Chaitra total number of devotees visited, about: 1,60,000
In other days of Chaitra, total number of devotees visited, around 5,00,000
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Total 17,30,000
Apart from this month, in the rest 11 months around 8,00,000 visitors are expected to visit this holy Shrine. So the Tara Tarini development Board has anticipated that, this year the figure of the total number of visitors will go up to 25 lakhs.
The Statistics of Last 5 Years:

1. 2004---12,00,000
2. 2005---13,78,000
3. 2006---15,07,000
4. 2007---16,70,000
5. 2008---19,40,000

Sensing this rapid growth of visitors the state administration in cooperation with the Ganjam district administration has created ‘Taratarini Development Board’ incorporating some of the eminent persons of Orissa and mainly from Southern Orissa, under the Chairmanship of the Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC) Southern Orissa in 2002/03. Since then the Taratarini Development Board (TTDB) has started the overall development of the Taratarini Hill Shrine and its nearby areas. Over this period of time the Board has successfully completed the work of a stone temple on the Hilltop for the Twin Goddesses and has initiated the work of widening of the 999 sacred stone steps with rest sheds, widening of the roads leading to the Hilltop and providing drinking water facility on the hill top and constructed the first Arial “Rope Way” of Eastern India for fastest communication of visitors.
After the formation of the Board this famous Breast Shrine got the much needed attention and spark and owing to that in the last five years the number of pilgrims visiting the shrine has gone up significantly.
To keep pace with this, the Board has approved a number of new projects for the benefit of visitors. Some of the prioritized list of works proposed by the TTDB to be taken up in the first phase, on the hilltop of the Taratarini Hill Shrine for the convenience of devotees and tourists are…………

· Construction of administrative office on the hilltop.
· Construction of Bhog Bazaar on the hilltop.
· Construction of Mundan shade on the hilltop.
· Construction of a hospital.
· Construction of public utilities
· Construction of waiting hall for the Rope-way on the hilltop.
· Arrangement of space to accommodate the buildings for ATMs, Lockers, Shoe stands and other facilities.
· Further development of Arial Rope-way.
· Construction of Kalyana Mandapam.
· Construction of outer protection wall and River side retaining wall to check land sliding and soil erosion at the hilltop.
· Construction of huge parking space at the hilltop.
· Flood Lighting arrangements at the hilltop and inside the Temple premises.
· Lighting arrangement on the 999 holy stone steps and road leading to the Hilltop from Taratarini junction.
· Widening of stone steps and arrangement of public utilities/ rest houses.
· Further widening of the existing road to the Hilltop.
· Maintenance of eco-system in and around the sacred hill by huge plantation in its nearby areas.
Also Published in the Hindu, Tathya.in & OrissaDiary.com