Highlights
- According to Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust general secretary Champat Rai, the temple will be opened for devotees after the installation of the idols of Ram Lalla
- He also said 50 per cent of the construction work of the temple has been completed and the overall progress is satisfactory.
- The sanctum sanctorum will have 160 pillars while the first floor will have 82. In all, the structure will have 12 entry gates made of teak wood.
The under-construction mega Ram temple in Ayodhya will be open to devotees in January 2024.
According to Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust general secretary Champat Rai, the temple will be opened for devotees after the installation of the idols of Ram Lalla in the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine on Makar Sankranti.
50 percent of construction completed
He also said 50 per cent of the construction work of the temple has been completed and the overall progress is satisfactory.
He said the ground floor of the temple will be ready by December next year and around January 14, 2024, idols of Lord Ram will be installed.
“An estimated Rs 1,800 crore will be spent on building the Ram temple,” Rai said, adding that space will be made for idols of prominent Hindu seers.
Ram temple will open for public after Makar Sankranti
“Grand celebrations for the opening of Ram Mandir will start in December this year and will continue till Makar Sankranti on January 14, 2024. Idols of Ram Lalla will be installed in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple on Makar Sankranti in 2024,” Rai said on Tuesday.
The temple, which will have 392 pillars and 12 doors, is being constructed without using iron bars. Instead of iron, copper chips are being used to join stones.
The sanctum sanctorum will have 160 pillars while the first floor will have 82. In all, the structure will have 12 entry gates made of teak wood.
Foundation stone was laid by PM Modi
The Ram Temple is being built on land spread across 2.77 acres and the estimated construction cost is around Rs. 1800 crore.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the temple on 5 August 2020.
Ram temple design was created in 1989
The Ram temple was designed by Chandrakant Sompura, a renowned architect who had to prepare the design in 1989.
It was the then VHP chief Ashok Singhal who first took Sompura to Ayodhya and asked him to design a temple. He made a grand design for the Ram Temple which was later approved by saints during the Allahabad Kumbh in the early 1990s.
Sompura comes from a family that has a long history of designing temples. His father Prabhakar Sompura, was the architect of the Somnath Temple in Gujarat and the temple in Mathura, the mythological birthplace of Lord Krishna.
Chandrakant who followed in his father’s footsteps has designed 131 temples, along with his son Ashish. This includes the Swami Narayan Temple in Gandhinagar, Ambaji Temple in Palanpur and several others.
