‘Ram Lalla idol will be relocated on Mar 24’

AYODHYA: The idol of Ram Lalla will be shifted from the makeshift temple to another location on the Ram Janmabhoomi campus in the early hours of March 24 with full Vedic rituals.

“Ram Lalla will be relocated to a new place in the wee hours on March 24. From Navratra (starting on March 25), devotees will be able to worship Ram Lalla at the new location,” Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra trust general secretary Champat Rai said on Saturday.

A new platform is under construction near the Ram Janmabhoomi campus gate where the idol will be shifted from the makeshift temple and placed in a prefabricated structure.

The move is meant to facilitate the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya.

Devotees will be able to worship the deity from a much closer distance than the current 50 feet.

Asked about the announcement of the date for starting construction work of Ram temple, Rai said: “Much work is to be done on the premises before construction work starts.”

“Testing of the soil (of Ram Janmabhoomi) taken from 80-90 feet below the earth will be carried out at IIT Roorkee and Kanpur, levelling of land and outlining of the campus are some of the pending works,” he added.

“The next meeting of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra will take place in Ayodhya on April 4,” said Rai, who is also the Vishwa Hindu Parishad international vice-president.

The first meeting of the newly constituted Trust was held in New Delhi on February 19.

Rai and Anil Mishra, a member of the Board of Trustees, also inspected the ongoing construction work on the Ram Janmabhoomi campus on Saturday for shifting of the idol of Ram Lalla