Construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya is being undertaken at a brisk pace, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Trust said in its latest progress report. The ground floor of the garbha griha (sanctum sanctorum) will be finished by December 2023, the trust said last week. The remaining work will be done by December 2024. The temple is expected to be opened to the public by early 2024, the trust said.
“The temple’s plinth/pedestal heightening work started on January 24, 2022, and it is still in progress…,” the trust said in the latest report. “Granite stone blocks from Karnataka and Telangana are being used to increase the height of the plinth. One block is five metres in length, and 2.5 feet in width, and 3 feet in height. About 17,000 granite blocks will be used in this plinth work. The plinth heightening work may be completed by the end of September 2022.”
The temple construction is based on designs by chief architect Chandrakant Sompura, who is being assisted by his sons Nikhil and Ashish. The architects made some changes to the original design, also designed by the family and dating back to 1988, in accordance with the shilpa shastras and vastu shastra. The design is based on the Gujara-Chaulukya style of northern Indian temple architecture.
The temple will be 360 feet long, 235 feet wide, and 161 feet high. Once completed, the temple complex will be the world’s third largest Hindu shrine after the Pashupatinath temple in Nepal and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
The trust also said installation of carved sandstones would commence at and around the sanctum sanctorum shortly.
“The plinth work and the installation of the carved stones will continue simultaneously… About 4.70 lakh cubic feet of carved stones will be used in the Mandir,” read the report.
The construction committee meets with the engineers and the architects for two to three days every month under the chairmanship of Nripendra Mishra to discuss details of the construction, the trust said.