Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis participated in the foundation stone laying ceremony for TTD’s Shri Venkateswara Swamy Temple in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday, June 7, 2023.
The temple, designed as a replica of the famous Tirumala temple in Andhra Pradesh, marks a significant milestone as the first TTD temple in Maharashtra.
The world’s richest Hindu temple trust, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam, has constructed temples in various cities across the country like Chennai, Hyderabad (two temples - Himayatnagar and Jubilee Hills), Bengaluru, Kanyakumari, and now in Navi Mumbai. Every year, lakhs of devotees from Maharashtra visit Tirumala, a spiritual town in Tirupati district.
The 10 acre land for the Navi Mumbai temple, which is located near the upcoming international airport, at Ulwe node was allotted by the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government-led by Uddhav Thackeray in April last on the occasion of Gudi Padwa, Marathi New Year.
On February 27, 2022, TTD chairman Y.V. Subba Reddy, had written a letter to then chief minister Mr. Thackeray for the allotment of the land, who in turn had then directed CIDCO to identify a suitable piece of land near the upcoming international airport. After the in-principle approval to the allotment of the land, Mr. Reddy along with the additional chief officer, Dharma Reddy, trustee and Mr. Uddhav close aide Milind Narvekar had visited and inspected the land.
The land was allotted on a lease rent of Re. 1 per sq meter along with 1 floor space index.
The Raymond Group has come forward to build the temple of Lord Venkateshwara. Earlier chairman and managing director of the Raymond group, Gautham Hari Singhania said the construction of the new temple will be taken up on priority basis and completed at the earliest.