'Ram Lalla's idol will be installed on..': Ayodhya Ram temple trust gen secretary makes BIG announcement

Ayodhya: Devotees across the country and beyond have been eagerly waiting for the completion of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. Union Minister Amit Shah recently announced that the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya will be ready by January 1 next year (2024). Adding to Shah’s statement, the temple’s trust general secretary Champat Rai today (January 6) stated that the Ram Mandir’s construction will be completed “on time”. "As per the plan, the idol of Ram Lalla will be installed in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple on Makar Sankranti (January 14) in 2024," said the general secretary of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust set up for the construction and management of the temple.

By the end of 2023, the construction at the sanctum sanctorum is expected to be completed, Rai said. "We have set December 2023 as the deadline for construction of the temple and January 2024 to open it for devotees," Rai said.

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In his address at a rally in Sabroom of Tripura on Thursday, Shah hit out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and said, "Rahul baba, listen from Sabroom that a mammoth Ram Mandir will be ready on January 1, 2024."

This is the first time that a date for the opening of the Ram temple in Ayodhya has been announced publicly by the Shah. Refusing to give an exact date for the opening of the temple, Rai said, "Grand celebrations for the opening of Ram Mandir will start in December of 2023 and will continue till Makar Sankranti, 2024."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed the 'Bhoomi Puja' for the construction of the temple on August 5, 2020. During his visit to Ayodhya on October 23 last year, after offering prayers to Ram Lalla at the makeshift temple, the prime minister reviewed the progress of the construction work.

Trust officials had told PTI in August last year that the plinth work has been almost completed. They said a rectangular, two-story parikrama road will be constructed, enclosing a total of eight acres of land including the area of the temple and its courtyard, and in its eastern part, there will be an entrance made of sandstone.

White marble from the Makrana hills in Rajasthan will be used inside the sanctum sanctorum of the temple, they said. The marble-carving work is in progress and some of the carved marble blocks have already been brought to Ayodhya, the officials added. Besides the construction of the temple, the demolition of shops and houses for widening the road leading to the famous Hanuman Garhi mandir is also underway.

After a decade-long legal battle, the Supreme Court on November 9, 2019, paved the way for the construction of the Ram temple in the disputed site at Ayodhya, where Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992.

(With inputs from PTI)