AMARAVATI: President Droupadi Murmu on Monday offered prayers at Srisailam temple in Andhra Pradesh's Kurnool district and laid the foundation stone for a number of development works.

Reaching at Sunnipenta helipad from Hyderabad by helicopter, Murmu was received by Andhra Pradesh Endowments Minister Kottu Satyanarayana, l MLA Shilpa Chakrapani Reddy, Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath, and senior officials. From there, she reached Srisailam temple by road.

Union  Tourism and Culture Minister G. Kishan Reddy, Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan also reached Srisailam along with the President from Hyderabad.

President Murmu was greeted to the temple by R. K. Roja, the tourism minister for Andhra Pradesh, as well as other dignitaries and senior authorities. The customary welcome for her was extended by priests and temple officials. At the Ratnagarbha Ganapathi Swamy temple, she received darshan.

Later, the President offered Kumkumarchana to Bramarambika Devi and Rudrabhishekam to Srisailam Mallikarjuna Swamy.

She launched a number of initiatives for the advancement of the Srisailam Temple. Under the National Mission of Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Heritage Augmentation Drive (PRASHAD) scheme of the Union Tourism Ministry, projects worth Rs 43 crore were initiated.  She also visited Sri Shivaji Spoorthy Kendram at Srisailam. She later made a five-day winter visitation in Hyderabad.

She had taken a special aircraft to Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Shamshabad earlier, and a helicopter to take her to Srisailam.

For the President's visit, stringent security measures were put in place at Srisailam. As part of the procedures, the temple authorities halted devotees' access to darshan and redirected traffic.

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