It is to be noted that there are 160 pillars on the ground floor and each pillar has 25 iconographical works of different forms at Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir temple. In an interview with news agency, Nripendra Misra said that 70,000-75,000 people can have easy darshan if the temple is open for 12 hours. He said money for temple construction is coming from the people and there is no government involvement and about Rs 3,500 crore has been collected through donations.
“Our present estimates are that with some bit of easy flow, of devotees, about 70,000-75,000 people can go in a span of about 12 hours. If the temple is open for 12 hours, about 75,000 people can have easy darshan, which means roughly a devotee will be able to stand before the deity for about a minute, not more than that. If there is a crowd of 1.25 lakhs, which we are expecting in the early days then the period for darshan would be reduced to about 20 seconds,” he said.
Misra said they worked on design and engineering to ensure the longevity of the temple structure.
“We do have faith that very soon the temple will be a reality in December 2023 and a final temple of both the ground floor, the first floor, and the second floor will be complete by December 2024,” he said.
“All those who are associated with Lord Ram, Ayodhya, the temple, with the features of an ancient temple in India have this expectation that it must have a life of thousand years…The first challenge was that there was no written engineering detail of how these temples were constructed. So we had to evolve the engineering details, the design and the drawing, the mix of material to be used, on the process of knowledge, which today exists. We identified 5 IITs chosen to become the advisers for the construction,” he added.
Misra said that the diety would be installed in the sanctum-sanctorum of the temple. “People want to know when would the temple be completed, their dream have come true. The temple is a reality. The temple will be completed in two parts, the first past- Phase 1 will be completed by December 2023. The first part will be the ground floor of the temple which is about 2.6 acres of land. The ground floor has five mandaps, starting with the sanctum-sanctorum, where the deity would be installed… There are 160 pillars on the ground floor, and each pillar has 25 iconographical works of different forms. The work on the lower plinth, which tells Ram Khatha, that is based on carving on the stone, and it is taken from Valmiki Ramayan, about 50 per cent of that would be completed,” he said.
He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen to know the progress of Ram Temple construction. “PM Modi believes that this temple must become a reality because he sees this as a part of his cultural evolution of this country. He sees this as a part of a treasure of the civilization of this country, of the faith of this country. It was his expectation that the communities would dissolve between themselves, amongst themselves, and a temple would come out and he, obviously, was extremely satisfied when the judicial pronouncement came.”
Misra said not a pie would be spent from the exchequer of the UP government or central government in the construction work for the temple. “PM Modi, by nature, entrusts the responsibilities of all projects to the people who have to do the work. So this temple was entrusted to trust. The trust was formed as per this Supreme Court judgment, and there’s no government in this trust. There’s no government money in this trust. In the area of these 71 acres, not a pie would be spent from the exchequer of the UP government or Central government.
“It is all coming from people’s participation. It is all from lakhs and lakhs of people who participated and contributed money as donations for this temple. Prime Minister is interested in knowing the progress and he is extremely conscious to know if there is any problem in the construction of the temple. As far as the work is concerned, it is only given to trust, and the trust is doing it,” he said.
He said effort was made to reach out to devotees and take their contribution for the construction of Lord Ram temple. “Our trust, Champat Rai, general secretary of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra took help from other organisations and tried that workers will visit at least 4 lakh villages, meet the devotees and collect donations. There are people who have given Rs 10 crore, Rs 50 crores…and through this medium, around Rs 3,500 crores has been collected…”
Supreme Court’s verdict in 2019 on the Ayodhya dispute paved the way for the construction of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya. Following the apex court verdict, the Centre set up Shri Ram Janma Bhoomi Tirtha Kshetra’ Trust to take all decisions regarding the construction of a magnificent Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
The construction of the temple has been progressing at a steady pace under the supervision of the Trust. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the construction of the Ram Temple on August 5, 2020.
