Ayodhya: Trust releases progress report of Ram temple

AYODHYA: The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust on Monday released the progress report of Ramjanmabhoomi temple under construction at Ayodhya.
Along with two private construction and consultation companies, four senior engineers from IITs and other technical institutes are offering their services to the trust voluntarily. On August 5, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone for the Ram temple construction.
According to trust secretary Champat Rai, an expert committee was formed In November 2020 under chairmanship of former director of IIT, Delhi for the construction of Ram temple. Directors of IIT, Guwahati and NIT, Surat, professors from IITs of Delhi, Bombay and Madras, director of CBRI, Roorkee and senior engineers of private construction and consulting firms are members of the committee, he said.
In November 2020, the National Geo Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad was requested to conduct a site survey for giving its suggestions on laying of the temple foundation. The NGRI conducted a geo-analysis using GPR technique and suggested open excavation of the area. This GPR survey was conducted in November-December 2020, Rai said and added that about 1.85 lakh cubic metre of stratified debris and loose soil was removed from about six acres of land surrounding the earmarked temple site. The site had a 14-metre deep pit at sanctum sanctorum and another 12-metre deep around it, Rai said, adding that IIT professors of Chennai had suggested a special technique for filling these huge pits. One raw layer of 12 inches was compacted to 10 inches by a heavy duty roller and the compaction density was critically measured.
The work to raise the platform of the temple was started on January 24 and it is still continuing. Plinth of the temple would be raised by 6.5 metres. Granite stone from Karnataka and Telangana is being used to raise the plinth. One block is about five-foot in length, 2.5-foot wide and three-foot high. Around 17,000 such blocks would be used in raising the plinth, the report said, adding that this work would be completed by the end of September this year.