The Ram temple in Ayodhya will be open to the public by the end of 2023, even though the entire complex is expected to be ready only by 2025.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the temple’s foundation stone on August 5, 2020, and a year on, construction is in full swing.
The ground floor of the temple, where the sanctum sanctorum will be located and where an idol of Ram Lalla will be placed, will be ready for prayers by December 2023.
Arrangements are being made to streamline the process of providing security clearances and installing public amenities, said another person aware of the details.
Also read: Shocking! Police in Tamil Nadu arrests 8 people for allegedly exhuming and consuming human flesh during temple festival
PM performed Bhumi puja and shila puja
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had performed the Bhumi Puja and Shila Puja on August 5 last year at Ram Janmabhoomi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP Governor Anandiben Patel, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, and others performed Bhoomi Pujan rituals to construct the construction of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya on August 5.
Costing ₹900-1,000 crore, spread over 110 acres of land
The temple complex, which is expected to incur a cost of ₹900-1,000 crore and will be spread over 110 acres of land, is being built by Larsen & Toubro. At the same time, Tata Consulting Engineers has been signed on as the project management consultant. The temple complex will also have a museum, a research centre, and an archival centre.
The temple trust has already received donations in excess of ₹3,000 crores. This amount is excluding donations from non-resident Indians as foreign donations are not yet permitted.
Ram temple trust denies graft charge, gives detail of land deal
Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has been entrusted with the task of Ram temple construction in Ayodhya.
Earlier this year, the general secretary of the trust, Champat Rai, said: “The Ram Temple will be built in about two and a half acres and a wall will be built around it, which is called Parkota.
Retaining walls will be built inside the ground to prevent the effects of floods. This work will be completed in three years and with this preparation we are doing all the work.”
Stonework at Ram Mandir expected to start in December this year: temple trust
The filling of the foundation will be completed by the end of October, and from the month of December, the second phase of construction work will begin, which includes fixing stones to create the structure of the upcoming grand temple.
Earlier in 2019, the Supreme Court had handed over the site for building a Ram temple after years of litigation following the razing of the 16th-century Babri Masjid in 1992.
“In December, the work on base plinth will start with pink stones of Mirzapur, and an order has been placed. The stones will be cut and shaped on the premises of Ram Janmabhoomi,” Anil Mishra, trustee of Ram Mandir Trust, told PTI.
He said that about 50 layers of a 10-inch thick mixture of building material would be laid in about a 50-feet deep foundation measuring 400 feet long and 300 feet wide.
He added that six layers of building material mixture had been placed one on top of the other over the foundation land spread across 2.77 acres.
