The Ram temple in Ayodhya will be completed by 2025 but it will be opened to the public from December 2023, sources said today.
Work on the grand temple started a year ago on August 5 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the temple construction with holy rituals.
Sources say from 2023-end, pilgrims will be allowed to visit the Ram temple alongside the building work
No steel or bricks are being used in the temple, which will have three floors and five “mandaps” or pavilions.
“The temple design was finalized considering the changes in the last three decades and the aspirations of devotees,” said sources.
Details of the temple:
- The length of the temple is 360 feet, width 235 feet and height of each floor will be 20 feet.
- There will be 160 columns on the ground floor, 132 columns on the first floor and 74 columns on the second floor.
- The height of the sanctum sanctorum or “Shikhar” will be 161 feet from the ground floor.
- The temple will be constructed with Rajasthan stone and marble.
- Around four lakh cubic feet stone will be used in the temple construction.
- The plan focuses on the conservation and development of heritage structures like “Kuber Tila” and “Sita Koop“.
- The temple complex will include a pilgrim facilitation centre, museum, archives, research centre, auditorium, a cattle shed, a place for rituals, an administrative building and rooms for priests.
- The soil investigation report had revealed filled up debris upto depth of 12 metre and excavation work is on to clear it and fill it with concrete.
The site that was for years caught in a dispute after the 16th-century Babri mosque was razed in 1992 by Hindu activists who believed it was built on the ruins of an ancient temple for Lord Ram.
In 2019, the Supreme Court handed over the site for the building of a Ram temple and ordered that Muslims be given alternative land for a mosque.
Surjitt Sahani
