Efforts on to open Ram temple by Dec ’23: Misra
NEW DELHI: The grabha griha (sanctum santorum) of the Ram temple at Ayodhya will be completed by December 2023 and efforts are being made to allow devotees to visit the structure shortly after, chairperson of Ram Temple Construction Committee Nripendra Misra said in an interview on Wednesday.
“We are using granite slabs to ensure the durability of the temple,” he said. “The construction of the temple is on schedule and efforts are being made to ensure that devotees can do darshan (pay respects) at the temple by the end of December 2023, after the griha has been completed.”
He added that the entire complex will be ready by 2025. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the temple on August 5, 2020.
Misra, who served as principal secretary to PM Modi, also said that following the wishes of the devotees, the committee has ensured that pink sand stone Bansi Paharpur in Rajasthan is used in the construction.
“Even before the committee was constituted by the Supreme Court, many devotees who worked for the rights of the temple started collecting stones (for it),” he said.
He added that the entire effort of the trust is to make sure that the temple stands for a thousand years. Once the grabha griha is completed, devotees may be allowed to visit the site. The temple construction committee has said that June 1 is an auspicious date according to the Hindu religious calendar and chief minister Yogi Adityanath will attend a two-hour ceremony, which will start around 9am, and lay the first slab for the sanctum amid Vedic rituals to be performed by 11 priests.
Adityanath relocated Ram Lalla from the tent in Ram Janmabhoomi to the makeshift temple on March 25, 2020.
Till date, around 212 pillars have been carved at Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas Karyashala (workshop) in Ayodhya. The VHP has been operating this workshop since the Ram Mandir movement began in the late 1990s.
Most of these pillars from the workshop have been shifted to Ram Janmabhoomi. After utilising these pillars and stone slabs, the trust will use pink sand stones of Bansi Paharpur from Bharatpur district in Rajasthan.