New Delhi: The ground floor of the three-storied Ram temple in Ayodhya will be completed by October this year, sources have said. The temple will be consecrated next January -- at the beginning of the election year.
The work on the ground floor is at the final stage and Ram Janambhoomi Trust member Nripendra Mishra took stock of the situation today, sources said.
Last year, Union home minister Amit Shah had promised that the temple will be ready for opening by January 1.
It is expected to be a milestone for the ruling BJP, which considers the temple movement the fulcrum for its emergence as a national electoral force in the 1990s.
The construction at the site started in August 2020 after the Supreme Court ended decades of legal wrangle with a milestone verdict in 2019 that went in favour of a temple.
The 360 ftX235 ft structure will have 160 columns on the ground floor, 132 columns on the first floor and 74 columns on the second floor. There will be five "mandaps" or pavilions. The temple will have 46 doors made of teak wood. The door of the sanctum sanctorum will be gold studded.
Around four lakh cubic feet of stone and marble from Rajasthan will be used for the structure, which will tower 161 feet over the sanctum sanctorum -- there will be no use of steel or bricks.
The other structures inside the complex, a Shiva temple on Kuber mound and the statue of Jatayu, are expected to attract devotees.
The complex will also 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 date for the consecration has not been fixed. It is likely to take place after Makar Sankranti.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi – who laid the foundation stone on August 5 2020 -- will be present for the ceremony.