Part of Singotam temple on verge of collapse

​Mahbubnagar: The famous Singotam Narasimha Swamy temple on the banks of historic Singotam reservoir in Kollapur needs immediate attention as a part of the temple’s left upper corridor is on the verge of collapse posing danger to devotees.

At present, the main sanctum sanatorium, the interior and other exterior parts of the temple have been renovated with white painting, tiled flooring and systematic railings to control the rush of the devotees, the left side of the temple’s first floor corridor towards the ‘Koneru’ is on the verge of collapse as the entire ceiling is leaking and ready to be collapse anytime.

The temple is popular with thousands of devotees visiting the temple every year. It’s still being managed by the heirs of Maharaja of the erstwhile Kollapur Samsthanam kings. “We don’t have an Endowment officer for this temple, all the development works and other financial related issues are being taken care by the decedents of the royal family of Kollapur Maharajas,” said Chandrasekhar, the caretaker of the temple premises.

The temple is very famous as every year during ‘Brahmotsavam’ 30,000 to 1 lakh devotees visit the temple for the Laxmi Narasimha swamy ‘darshan’. Though there have been some renovation works and construction works going on, the management of temple seems to be giving least attention to the dilapidated condition of the temple. “This temple has not attracted the government’s attention during the past many years.

It is under the clutches of a private trust run by the royal family; because of this it has not got enough funds for development. Otherwise it could have been developed into a famous tourist attraction in Kollapur. The roads are not developed till date. We are facing many hardships due to lack of proper roads and travel facilities to this temple,” said Laxmamma, a devotee of Narsiapally village, who had come for darshan at the temple.

With the Singotam reservoir getting the heavy inflows from the lift irrigation projects, water is released into the ‘Koneru’ providing great relief to the devotees. The ‘Koneru’ is also renovated and it has been developed into a pool sort of thing where devotees can take bath.

“At present the works are going on, and very soon the repairs to the leaking roofs are expected to be taken up. Since we are taking up the other works it will take some time to repair the roofs,” said the caretaker.

Though the state government has also decided to develop the temples and tourists destinations across Kollapur and surrounding regions along the Krishna river bank at Somashila and elsewhere, the renovations of majority of the temples along the Krishna banks and nearby regions are yet to be taken up and wherever it is taken up its going on at a snail’s pace.