Big Ram Mandir update: Here's when devotees can enter Temple for darshan

Nripendra Misra, chairman of the construction committee of the Ram Janmabhoomi Trust, on Monday, said that the first phase of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya will be completed by December 30, 2023. He said that the devotees will be able to enter the Temple after the completion of the first phase.

The Temple is being constructed in three phases. Misra, who was also the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said that the five 'mandaps' on the ground floor will be completed in the first phase.

"The Temple Trust decided that the first phase of Ram Temple construction be completed by December 30, 2023. In the first phase five 'mandaps' on the ground floor, out of which the most prominent is the sanctum sanctorum where God's idol will be installed, should be completed," he said.

Stating that there are nearly 160 pillars in the construction of the five mandaps, the construction committee head said, "The work of iconography (visual images and symbols) in them should be completed. A brief description of Lord Ram on the lower plinth of the Temple will be started (in the first phase), and the electricity facility and other facilities should be completed. All these works will be completed by December 30, 2023."

श्री राम जन्मभूमि मंदिर के गृभगृह की दीवार।

अद्भुत, अलौकिक...भव्‍य रूप ले रहा मंदिर। pic.twitter.com/XiBtzocDb4

— Champat Rai (@ChampatRaiVHP)

Misra informed that the "idol will be installed" and devotees will be able to able to offer prayers by the end of this year. The first and second storeys of the temple will be completed by December 30, 2024. 

He said that estimates of the construction of the Temple fall between Rs 1400 crore and Rs 1800 crore. "There will be a minimum expenditure of Rs 300 crore in the construction of the ground floor," he said.

Notably, Union Home Minister Amit Shah in January this year had announced that Ram Mandir will be opened for devotees by January 1, 2023.