In 2006, the joint tasks of rebuilding Sri Ghanagiri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple and the construction of ghat road on Penukonda hill were envisaged by J.Prathapa Reddy, Advocate and Chairman of the Temple Trust, Penukonda and other well wishers. The active participation of locals, especially the students in Shramdaan programme resulted in the clearing of datla dari (footway) and temple premises
paving way for the devotees to visit temple on foot. Sri Ghanagiri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple development trust was constituted in the same year. For one whole month after, temple’s surroundings were rigorously cleaned and the footway was surveyed to estimate the feasibility for the construction of road. Upon meeting the then Panchayati Raj minister J.C. Diwakar Reddy, the trust was able to get the same released immediately. The engineers concluded that the proposed road construction was not feasible and instead suggested an alternative route on the backside which starts at Sheep farm. Soon after the survey, tenders were floated. A local contractor won the contract and had begun work. Not long after the road construction work had begun, the Department of Forest interrupted the process citing absence of permissions causing it to halt. Upon their insistence, the trust applied for the same via Panchayati Raj Department. After repeated visits to Ananthapur, Kadiri, Hyderabad and Bengaluru the trust were able to obtain stage-1 permissions. In order to ascertain the support of the locals for the temple's cause, a Bhoomi pooja was conducted on the hill in the year 2007. The three days of pooja was outstanding and were marked by Mantrocharana by Brahmins, Veda Pathana, Hari Kathalu, Bhajanas, Kolatas and Annadanam. After the hearty reception by people who belonged not only to nearby villages but also from Penukonda town, the dedication to the cause has doubled. After the inadequacy of the funds was evident, minister JC Diwakar Reddy was re-approached with a revised estimate of 89 lakhs and the same amount was granted after due consideration. Then, another engineering team summoned from Bangalore to survey the possibility of construction of a road from behind the hill declared not possible. With the cooperation of then RDO of Penukonda, Mr Nageswara Rao, a new survey by Soma Company was initiated which lasted for 30 days. The survey covered the region between Penukonda Firestation and temple on hill top via Konamala. The survey confirmed the possibility of a road way and estimated the length of the road to be near 6 km. 34 lakh rupees was spent on obtaining permissions from forest department and 4.5 hectares of land from Nambula Poolakunta was handed over to them. Calls for tenders were floated yet again with the remainder sum of 55 lakhs. Citing financial dearth, no contractor came forward. In addition to that, during the process of obtaining permissions for stage-2 from CCF Bangalore, it was learnt that the surveys were not properly done and were to be retake survey. Owing to these 2 reasons, the construction was completely stopped again. During the same time, Karnataka government was celebrating its celebration of 500 years of coronation of Sri Krishna Devarayalu which prompted Andhra Pradesh government to come forward to take-up the same. However, the state government of Andhra Pradesh decided to organize them elsewhere. The trust was instrumental in mobilizing people in a large scale to the movement which urged the state government to organize the celebrations in Penukonda which is deemed as the second capital of Sri Krishna Devarayalu. Consequently the state government organized a grand 3 day festival in the year 2010 and was overseen personally by the then honarable Chief Minister of the state, Mr Rosaiah. The government released an amount of Rs 5 crore to fund the construction of the road. At the same time, a 20 feet Sri Krishna Devarayalu was erected in the Y-circle. During the celebration the then Tirumala Tirupati Devastanam Chairman promised to grant Rs 2 Crore for the building of the temple. But it has come to a naught till now. The trust visited TTD time and again to effect the release of the amount but in vain. Finally Endowment Department of Andhra Pradesh was approached for the same which citing lack of funds released a Government Order (GO) making the trust the sole authority entrusting the responsibility of procuring the funds from public in the form of donation and constructing the temple. Despite the relative ease in constructing the temple, the trust was skeptical of the operating expenses of the temple like poojas and salaries to the temple employees.
501st Anniversary of Sri Krishnadevaraya coronation was again conducted at Penukonda, on which occasion the road construction was restarted with the 5 crore rupees previously sanctioned. Within an year, right before 502nd anniversary, a kaccha road was completely constructed and the subsequent celebrations were conducted on the hill top.
503rd Anniversary was not organized by the Andhra Pradesh government on account of Samaikhyandhra movement. 504th anniversary was organized by the new state government of residual Andhra Pradesh on the Hill with great pomp and show. Previously, trust's chairman J.Prathapa Reddy through a prominent figure Balaji happened to meet ISKCON's Mr Satyagoura Chandradas Gurujee. ISKCON was urged to take over the construction of the temple, land for the construction of temple on hill top was guaranteed to be made available from the government with his personal assurance. In 2013 the place on the Hill was visited and the temple was examined. Duly impressed ISKCON vowed to come forward to build a grand golden temple with an estimated cost of Rs 300 Crore. The then state government was approached with the same proposal and didn't allocate the land. However in 2014, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu was approached for the allotment of land for the temple's construction who demanded a blueprint and a master plan for the same and assured that the government was willing to allocate land. ISKCON team under the leadership of Chanchalapati Das, employed Mr. Prashant, a Bangalore based architect to design a master plan. Consequently Survey No. 384, 5 Acres and 32 Cents of land was allocated on the Hill and a Government Order to that effect was issued. On 12-09-2015, the locals under the leadership of the trust visited Mr Chanchalapati Das of ISKCON in Bangalore's Rajaji Nagar ISKCON temple to thank them for coming forward for temple construction. On the same occasion Mr Chanchalapati Das vowed to commence the construction immediately. Both in 2013 and 2015, thousands of locals and students organized a cleanliness drive and planted seeds to initiate a green cover around the proposed golden temple. In this exemplary led by J.Prathapa Reddy, A.B. Gopinatha Rao, Dr. Roddam Prabhakar Rao, D Venkatarami Reddy, Nageswara Rao, Settipalli Narayana's team received maximum unstinted support from town's prominent personalities, locals, officials, public representatives and journalists and was instrumental in transcending their collective dream which culminated in the golden temple. To effect the construction of ISKCON temple, provision of infrastructure, upgrading of kaccha road to tar(asphalt) roads, protection walls, construction of a decent drainage system, electricity lines, drinking water pipeline, the state government was urged to grant 10 crores to ISKCON. People, state government, public representatives are urged by J.Prathapa Reddy to come forward and help ISKCON for this mega undertaking.
