President to pray at Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple on Saturday

Thiruvananthapuram, July 15 (IANS) President Pranab Mukherjee will Saturday offer prayers at the famed Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple during his two-day visit to Kerala, a statement said.

Mukherjee will arrive in Kerala Friday and attend the first convocation at the Central University in Kasargode and then fly down here to inaugurate the platinum jubilee celebrations of the College of Engineering. On Saturday morning, Mukherjee has just one programme - a 40-minute darshan at the Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple, before he flies to Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu.

It was in July 2011 that a Supreme Court-appointed committee stumbled upon six vaults in the temple, full of treasure. With just one vault left to be opened, the treasure found in the other vaults have been estimated to be valued more than Rs.1 lakh crore and since then there has been a huge rush of visitors to the temple, located in the heart of the capital city.