Chairman of the Ram Mandir Construction Committee Nripendra Mishra has said that each devotee will get a 20-second time window for Ram Lalla’s darshan and an hour in the Mandir complex. He said that while the first deadline for the Ram Temple construction is December this year, the temple trust is likely to fix a date in the last week of January 2024 for the installation of Ram Lalla in the Ayodhya Temple.
Ram Lalla will be installed on the ground floor, which is expected to be ready by the end of this year. Mishra said that the temple alone is on about three acres of land, and when the ‘parkota’ (parikrama ground) is complete, it will stretch to eight acres. Mishra said that the invite for the pran pratishtha has already been sent by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust to PM Modi.
Speaking about the temple security, Mishra said that a blueprint of the crowd management system has been drawn. “There are separate contingency plans for 50,000, one lakh, five lakh, and ten lakh visitors.“ He said that while the state government is responsible for the security, the overall temple security monitoring is in the hands of the Union Home Ministry.
“While the state government is responsible for security, there is another level that covers the overall view of the temple, the area, and the information and intelligence system. This is being looked into by the Union Home Ministry. A blueprint has already been drawn for security cover for the entire area,” Mishra said.
The former chief of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) added that a blueprint of the crowd management system has also been drawn.
Moreover, research institutes like IITs are also involved in the Ram Mandir construction process. Mishra said that though some of the ancient temples in India are over two millennia old, there was no documented record of the technology involved in their construction. He said the matter was referred to their partners.
“IIT Kanpur is working on the temple’s structural engineering, IIT Chennai mainly on the foundation, raft, and plinth. Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) has done all the work on the stability of stones keeping in mind earthquakes and other natural challenges,” he said.
He added that every layer has been tested for strength before moving on to the next one. “We laid 47 layers in this manner. We are now going to document a research literature based on what is being done here,” Mishra said. He added that the PM was actively involved with the construction and set targets for the team.
“The PM said that Raja Ramchandra became Lord Ram during exile. It was during exile that he experimented with social harmony and gave messages, which conveyed highly respected sentiments for women. He showed respect to the poor like Kewat, rishis like Vashisht, and Vishwamitra, and others during exile. So temples of Maharishi Valmiki, Vishwamitra, Nishad, Shabri, Agastya Muni, Ahilya etc are also being constructed outside the parkota“, Mishra added.
“On the lower plinth of the temple we will have murals which are going to be carved out and the same will be around 790 running feet that will depict Ram Katha. Then in ‘parkota’ there will be murals running around 790 metres, showing Lord Ram’s journey to becoming “Maryada Pushottam,” Mishra said.
Starting on 25th of August, a two-day meeting was held in Ayodhya in which Mishra was apprised of the ongoing construction work of the temple.