Cool coating at Kolhapur’s Mahalaxmi temple premises to provide relief to devotees arriving for darshan

Kolhapur: The pavements leading up to Kolhapur's famous Mahalaxmi temple are being coated with heat-resistant paints, also called cool coats, to reduce the surface temperature by 10-12°C and provide relief to devotees who stand in queues for long to get darshan of the goddessThe Paschim Maharashtra Devasthan Samiti, the management body of Kolhapur's Mahalaxmi temple, has roped in the Maratha Entrepreneur Association to get the paths coated with the heat-resistant paints through corporate social responsibility programme.Usually, during summer, devotees have to stand on a hot surface. Every year, the PMDS erects sun shades to provide shade and protect devotees from the heat. This time, the PMDS will not be able to provide the sun shade over the entire premises because of ongoing works at the temple. Therefore, a decision to coat the paths leading up to the temple with heat-resistant paints was taken."Usually, in April, we experience high temperatures. Every year, we put up sun shades, but there are restriction this yeart. The experiment of cool coating was done two years ago, and it proved to be effective. The coat reduces the temperature by 10-12°C," said Shivraj Naikawde, the secretary of PMDS.The temple management has also arranged for cool drinking water and fans to beat the summer heat. The temple witnesses a turnout of lakhs of visitors during the weekend. The count is expected to go up during the weekends of summer vacation, starting April end.The cool coating experiment is also done at the Tirupati Tirumala temple. The cool coating paint is made up of polymers and they reflect sunrays, reducing the intensity of surface heating. The paints are generally waterproof, but with friction they fade away eventually.