Ayodhya station to be replica of Ram temple: Manoj Sinha

AYODHYA: Junior railways minister Manoj Sinha announced here on Tuesday that the new railway station building in Ayodhya would be a replica of the VHP's design for a Ram temple in Ayodhya.
The fate of the Ram temple, meanwhile, awaits a Supreme Court decision on who owns the land on which the temple is proposed to be built.

The model for the proposed Ram temple was prepared by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in the late 1980s.

Sinha said his ministry would soon move a proposal for reconstruction of the Ayodhya railway station building as a replica of the proposed Ramjanmabhoomi temple.

The Prime Minister and BJP national president are of the opinion that people coming to Ayodhya from all over the world should get the feeling that this is the birthplace of Lord Ram," he said.

The proposed railway station will have all modern facilities, like lifts and escalators, Sinha said. Rs 80 crore out of the Rs 200 crore announced on Tuesday would be spent on remodelling the railway station, Sinha said. The remaining Rs 120 crore would be spent on shifting the railway goods warehouse in Ayodhya. Both these projects should be finished by 2021, he said. He added that Rs 1,116 crore was being spent on double-tracking and electrification of the Faizabad-Barabanki rail route and that this work should be complete by 2022.

Firebrand BJP MP Vinay Katiyar, also present on the occasion, said: "The reconstruction of Ayodhya railway station was being discussed since the time of Atalji. Now it seems by the time this project is finished the construction of a Ram temple will begin."