Photos: This temple is Telangana's reply to Andhra's Tirumala

Chants of ‘Om Namo Sri Lakshminarasimhaaya Namaha' by devotees reverberated across the Yadadri hill on Monday. Photo: TNN

Devotees for the first time in six years, saw a magnificent blackstone temple rise before their eyes as they entered the renovated main temple complex. Photo: TNN

The temple complex has been developed on 14 acres at a cost of Rs 1,020 crore. A temple town will also be developed on 850 acres around the complex.

At around 9. 30 am, KCR and his family members arrived at the Yadadri hillock and took part in the ‘shobha yatra’, where presiding deities were shifted from the Balalayam on palanquin to the sanctum sanctorum.

The temple priests offered the ‘naivedyam’ — also called ‘maharaja bhogam’ — of pulihora (lemon rice), laddu, vada and bajjis and tulasidala theertham, to Lord Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy.

KCR also carried a palanquin on his shoulders. Later, he participated in the ‘mahakumbha samprokshana’, performed the kalasha pujas at the top of the temple’s gopuram. Photo: TNN

KCR’s pet project of making the Yadadri temple town similar to the Lord Venkateshwara Swamy temple in Tirumala has now become a reality.

More or less, both the temple towns — Yadadri and Tirumala — are similar while there may be a slight difference between the both in a very few minor aspects including the deities presiding over number of hills, hundi offerings and amenities.

While Tirumala has seven hills, Yadagirigutta has nine of them. However, the new name of Yadagirigutta, Yadadri also sounds similar to Seshadri, which is the other name of Tirumala.