The ground floor of the Ram Mandir was built in December last year (PTI)
The construction work at the Ram temple complex in Ayodhya will be completed by December this year, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust said today.
Nearly 75 lakh devotees visited the temple since the consecration of the Ram Lalla idol on January 22, officials said.
Anil Mishra, a member of the temple trust, said that currently about 1,500 workers are employed and more than 3,500 additional workers will be deployed soon to speed up the construction of the two remaining floors of the three-storey temple building. The ground floor was built in December last year.
A meeting of the temple construction committee was held recently and it was decided construction in the Ram Janmabhoomi complex will be completed by the end of this year, Mr Mishra said.
The sanctum sanctorum is on the ground floor of the temple and the court of Lord Ram will be installed on the first floor as after having "darshan" of Ram Lalla, devotees will be able to have "darshan" of Lord Ram's court, he said.
The work of building the main spire and another spire of the grand temple is going on at a fast pace, while the peaks will be ready in 300 days, the temple trust member said.
There will be a total of five peaks in the temple, of which three peaks were prepared before the consecration ceremony, Mishra said, adding that the main peak is being built 161 feet high with a layer of gold on it.
The 'parkota' of the temple will also be ready before the arrival of monsoon to protect devotees from rain and sun, he said.
At the complex, temples of six gods and goddesses will be built along the parkota, besides temples of seven sages will also be constructed, he said.
He said that L&T, the company that is constructing the temple, is going to field an army of workers, currently 1,500, from Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh.
Temples of Hindu saints described in ancient religious texts, including Valmiki, Vashishtha, Vishwamitra, and Agastya, along with Nishadraj and Ahilya, are also to be built in the complex, Mr Mishra said.
Apart from this, the road from Tedhi Bazaar at the western end of the Ram Janmabhoomi to a post office via Ashrafi Bhawan and Vibhishan Kund will be widened by 15 metres. This road is being widened given the rising number of devotees, Ayodhya's District Magistrate Nitish Kumar said.
More than two lakh devotees are visiting the Ram temple on Tuesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, whereas on other days around 1.5 lakh devotees are arriving, Prakash Gupta, officer in-charge of the Ram temple trust, said.
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