PM Modi to inaugurate first phase of the Rs 856-crore Shri Mahakal Lok corridor in Ujjain

On Sunday, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, state ministers and other officials visited the Mahakal Lok and reviewed the preparations for the grand event. The chief minister oversaw the dress rehearsal of the various cultural performances that have been organised to welcome Modi. The cultural programmes will be held in the corridor premises, from Nandi Dwar to the temple, Outlook reported.

Singer Kailash Kher is expected to sing a song dedicated to Lord Shiva, the resident deity of the ancient Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain, on an inaugural day.

The corridor spreads around the old Rudrasagar Lake, which has been revived as part of the ancient Mahakaleshwar Temple redevelopment project.  The Mahakaleshwar Temple is one of the 12 'jyotirlingas' in the country which attracts a large number of devotees throughout the year.

The major highlights of the Mahakal Lok corridor are going to be two grand gateways — Nandi Dwar and Pinaki Dwar. The complex will be adorned with fountains, a colonnade with 108 ornate pillars made of sandstones, and a running panel with more than 50 murals depicting stories from Shiv Puran.

The first phase of the project has been developed at Rs 316 crores.

Work on the Mahakal temple complex was planned in 2017. The expansion project has been undertaken in two phases. The government will complete the work on the second phase in 2023-24, AIR reported.

The government has brought sandstones from Bansi Paharpur in Rajasthan to build the structures in the corridor. Most of the artisans and craftsmen came from Rajasthan, Gujarat and Odisha to work on chiselling and embellishing raw stones into aesthetic pillars and panels.

To ensure the safety of visitors, the corridor has placed CCTV cameras and public address systems at regular intervals. The public address system will be used to make announcements for crowd management. It will also play devotional songs for the public.

Apart from this, the temple corridor complex will also have an integrated control and command centre which will monitor security arrangements in the complex.

According to Ashish Kumar Pathak, chief executive officer of Ujjain Smart City, the project may not be able to restore the ancientness of the Mahakaleshwar Temple, it hopes to “re-evoke that glory through old, aesthetic architecture”.

Horticultural species mentioned in Abhigyan Shakuntalam by Kalidas have been planted in the corridor.

Pedestrians will walk on cobbled stone paths. The project will have a huge pavilion called the Triveni Mandapam with a fountain that holds a sculpture of Lord Shiva at the centre.

There will be around 190 sculptures highlighting the various forms of Lord Shiva, and other deities, in the lakefront of the corridor.

After the completion of the mega project, the temple complex area will expand from 2.87 ha earlier to 47 ha. This will also enhance the holding capacity of the temple complex significantly.