The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration in Puri on Wednesday set a target to enhance its corpus fund to Rs 1,000 crore from Rs 650 crore by 2023.

To realise the target, it will organise extensive donation programmes and set up donation boxes in places such as railway stations and airports to reach out to the devotees in large numbers.

“We are no longer getting adequate money as interest from the banks towards our deposits. Besides setting up donation boxes, the administration will lease out its stone quarries for mining to augment its revenue base and also invest in other sectors,” a senior official of the temple administration said.

After a meeting of the financial sub-committee of the temple, which met on Wednesday to draft an annual budget of Rs 202 crore for the financial year 2021-22, chief administrator of the temple Dr Krishan Kumar told reporters: “We have planned to enhance the corpus funds from Rs 650 crore to Rs 750 crore”.

He said: “We have earmarked Rs 11 crore for the upcoming Rath Yatra. Besides, we will come up with a welfare fund to the tune of Rs 5 crore for the servitor families. We will soon set up an Adarsha Gurukul school for children of the servitors. Work is on to finalise the MoU,” Kumar added.

The welfare fund will provide immediate financial assistance to the servitors and their kin in critical illnesses related to heart and kidney.

The scheme will be operated on the lines of Odisha State Treatment Fund.