■ Ram temple to be grander than planned: Architect

AHMEDABAD: The proposed Ram temple in Ayodhya will be almost double the size of what was originally planned as its design was modified following the Supreme Court verdict last year, its architect said on Friday.

The temple, to be constructed in Nagara style of architecture, will have five domes instead of two as envisaged earlier to accommodate more number of devotees, the architect said.

According to him, the project is likely to be completed in the next three years once the work commences.

The ‘bhoomi pujan’ (groundbreaking) ceremony of the temple in Ayodhya is scheduled to be held on August 5, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to attend, as told by the members of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra, a trust formed to oversee its construction.

“The design of the temple was modified after the Supreme Court verdict. Now it will be almost double the size of what was originally planned,” architect Chandrakant Sompura, who has designed it, told PTI.

“It will now have a shikhara (tower) over the sanctum sanctorum and five domes instead of the earlier plan of two domes. The height of the temple will also be more than what was in the previous plan,” he said.

In November last year, the Supreme Court had paved the way for the construction of Ram temple by at the disputed site at Ayodhya, and directed the Centre to allot an alternative five-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a new mosque at a “prominent” place in the holy town in Uttar Pradesh.

Sompura, 77, who comes from a family of temple architects that have designed over 200 such structures, said that he was asked to prepare a design for the Ram temple by late leader of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), Ashok Singhal, around 30 years ago. He said designing the Ram temple was an uphill task 30 years back, as he had to prepare drawings using his footsteps as the unit of measurement.