Chennai: Work to lay gold layer on Nanganallur Anjaneyar temple chariot begins

Work to lay a gold layer on the chariot of the Aadhi Vyadhihara Anjaneyar Temple in Nanganallur began on Monday (August 11, 2025) at a cost of ₹8 crore, using 9.5 kilos of gold. 

Tamil Nadu Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) P.K. Sekarbabu, who handed over the gold bars to the temple management, said that a new wooden chariot has been made at a cost of ₹35 lakh and copper plates have been laid on it at a cost of ₹12.31 lakh. 

Among over 40,000 temples under the purview of the department, 70 have gold-plated chariots and 60 have silver-plated chariots. In the last four years, work to make five gold-plated chariots at a cost of ₹31 crore and nine silver-plated ones at a cost of ₹29.77 crore have been taken up.

Of them, the Periyapalayam Sri Bhavani Amman temple’s gold-plated chariot and silver-plated chariots of the Thiruttani Murugan temple and Sri Kalikambal temple in Parry’s Corner (Chennai) have been completed and are in use. 

After the DMK government headed by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin took over, a total of 130 temples has gotten new temple cars at a cost of ₹75.55 crore and 134 cars are under construction. A total of 75 temple cars are being repaired at a cost of ₹19.20 crore and structures to safeguard 175 temple cars are being constructed at a cost of ₹30.31 crore. 

The Minister said that temples where the car festival was not conducted for a long time including the Sri Lakshmi Narasimha temple at Villupuram and Aadhi Thiruvarangam Ranganathaswamy temple in Kallakurichi district, where the festival was not conducted for over 150 years, were held.

Through the efforts of the department, 1,074 kilos of pure gold belonging to 21 temples has been deposited with nationalised banks ensuring income in the form of interest. The 21 temples are making a combined earning of ₹17.76 crore annually as interest, he added.