The two key posts lay vacant since June 30 after Sushil Nahata and Narottam Vaidya completed their four years tenure.
This is the second inning of Dr Tondon in the PADT. Dr Tondon who did his PhD on the Pashupati issues had served in the same post during 1989-93.
Talking to Republica, Dr Tondon expressed his commitment to speed up the development work at the Pashupatinath Temple Premise. He was also one of the masterminds behind the PADT master plan, which was formulated in 1988 and implemented from 1999 to 2010.
"Though the Pashupatinath Temple has seen the remarkable increment in number of devotees, the PADT is yet to ensure quality service to those visitors," he said. "The visitors will soon experience some visible changes."
The ten-year master plan was introduced with an estimated cost of Rs 7 billion, but it concluded with a very few tangible works as only 35 percent of the aimed projects could be completed on time.
Renovation of main shrine, small temples, systematization of the aryaghat by installing electronic crematorium were among the priorities of the master plan. Similarly, opening vegetarian restaurants, constructing guest houses for the residential tourists were the other the target which were missed.
However, the second phase of the master plan would accomplish all the pending works and begin the new projects as well, Tondon informed.
The main shrine and the numbers of other small temples in the premise are awaiting renovation decades.
"First of all, we need to outline the most vulnerable areas and renovate them accordingly," he mentioned.
Tondon had also initiated a campaing for the transparency of bhetighati (Offering) during his first tenure. The campaign came to fruition last year year following a Supreme Court decree, which asked for transparency in managing property at the UNESCO World Heritage Site. He believes that the offerings are still ill managed and non-transparent.
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