Yadagirigutta is now renamed as Yadadri

Hyderabad: If Lord Venkateswara Swamy of Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh presides over seven hills, Lord Lakshminarasimha Swamy of Yadagirigutta in Telangana, rechristened “Yadadri”, will soon have nine hills.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who took Chinna Srimannarayana Jeeyar Swamy, the well-known pontiff and preacher, on a helicopter survey and temple trip on Thursday, decided to club the neighbouring eight hills to make the abode of Lord Lakshminarasimha Swamy a mega centre of pilgrimage in Telangana. On the request of the CM, the Swamy renamed Yadagirigutta as “Yadadri”. The eight hills will also be renamed, soon making a total of nine hills, or Navagiri.

Mr Rao, who spent considerable time discussing development of the temple with Chinna Jeeyar Swami, Endowment and other officials, also revealed that a mono rail would be provided for the temple town for pilgrims, bes-ides bus and other facilities. Plans are also afoot to have idols of 32 different avatars of Lord Lakshminarasimha Swamy atop the hills.

Chinna Jeeyar Swamy asserted that that the temple development plan proposed by the Telangana government was in tune with Agama Shastra and the plans protected the temple traditions.

The CM and Swamy visited the main temple and also the surrounding eight hills and neighbouring places including Raigiri, Vangapalli, Turkapalli and Rajupet besides two lakes, which will be cleaned under the Mission Kakatiya programme.

“The main temple will be developed on six acre out of the total 14.5 acre on the hill top,” Mr Rao reportedly told the pontiff.

“I haven’t seen a Chief Minister like this who is committed to development of temples and a strong leader. This is the first time in the history of the country that a government has earmarked '100 crore in the state Budget for development of temples and promises to do the same every year. All cannot become Chandrasekhar Rao and only few people like him can be role models,” the Swamy remarked.