Lucknow, 16 Aug: According to persons familiar with the situation, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust wishes to hasten work on the main structure of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya in order to meet the revised December 2023 deadline for opening the temple’s sanctum sanctorum.
“Even the Centre and the state government want the Ram temple built by December 2023, because the next general election is scheduled for early 2024,” a famous Ayodhya seer remarked. “The BJP will almost certainly highlight the building of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya as its big success and fulfilment of its primary electoral promise in this election,” he added. Around 40% of the temple’s building work has been completed, and work on laying pillars will be hastened post monsoon, according to the Trust.
Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister, laid the first pillar on June 1 with Vedic ceremonies, but the work of laying the other pillars at the enormous Ram Janmabhoomi campus in Ayodhya has yet to get traction. According to a person acquainted with the situation, this problem will be discussed at the next joint meeting of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust and the Ram temple building committee, which is scheduled for the end of this month or the first week of September. The ground level of the Ram temple will have 166 pillars, the first story will have 144, and the second floor will have 82.
At the next joint meeting of the temple construction committee and the Trust, emphasis will be placed on expediting the work, according to a Trust member. The meeting will be presided over by Nripendra Misra, head of the Ram temple building committee. According to a Trust member, in order to meet the December 2023 deadline for completing the sanctum sanctorum of the Ram Mandir and opening it to pilgrims, construction work on the temple’s main structure would have to be hurried. From the floor of the sanctum sanctorum to the summit, the temple will be 161 feet tall. The Trust has three workshops for carving stones for the Ram temple in Pindwara village, Sirohi district, Rajasthan.
According to Champat Rai, general secretary of the Trust, white Makrana marble stones from Makrana tehsil in Rajasthan’s Nagaur district will be used in the temple’s sanctum sanctorum. The temple is being built by Larsen and Toubro, with Tata Consulting Engineers serving as the project’s management consultant.
