’80 pc work on ground floor of Ram temple done idol consecration between Jan 15 and 24′

PTI, Jul 17, 2023, 7:33 PM IST

Ayodhya (UP): A senior Ram Janmbhoomi Trust official Monday said 80 per cent of the work on the ground floor of the Ram temple here is complete, and confirmed the consecration of the Ram Lalla idol will take place between January 15 and 24, 2024.

“By October, the work on the ground floor of the temple will be completed. Then only the finishing touches will remain which will be completed by December,” Shriram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust general secretary Champat Rai said.

“An idol of Lord Ram in his five-year-old avatar will be installed on the first floor in the Ram temple and the consecration of the idol in the sanctum sanctorum will be done between January 15 and 24 in 2024,” he said.

Rai said 21 lakh cubic feet of granite, sandstone and marble are being used in the construction of the temple. “The frame of the Ram temple is of marble, while the doors are of teak wood from Maharashtra. Carving work has also started on them. No repair work will be required for more than 1,000 years” he added.

The official said 162 pillars are ready and more than 4,500 idols are being carved on these pillars. “A glimpse of ‘Treta Yug’ will be seen in these. Forty artisans from Kerala and Rajasthan have been engaged for the carving on the pillars,” he said.

“Each pillar is been divided into three parts. Twenty to 24 idols are being carved in each pillar. Eight to 12 idols are being carved in the upper part, four to eight in the middle and four to six in the lower part. One artisan takes about 200 days to carve a statue on a pillar,” Rai said.

He said the temple’s foundation is 15-foot-deep and made up of stone.