The Archaeology department of the Madhya Pradesh government is executing a project for translocating ancient temples located in the submergence zone of the mega Narmada project. So far, 23 temples have been re-located while work is on for the re-location of 7 others. All of them are Shiva temples.

Temples have been shifted between 10 to 100 kms from their erstwhile locations. The Narmada project comprises six multi-purpose projects: Sardar Sarovar, Narmada Sagar, Omkareshwar, Maheshwar, Jobat and Mann. All the temples that have been re-located were identified during the survey of 193 villages falling in the submergence zone of Sardar Sarovar – the biggest of the projects.

Teams of the department have fanned out to the submergence zone of other projects to identify the temples worth re-locating. “We are selecting only those temples which have an archeological or historical significance, says a department official.