After delay due to lockdown, construction begins at Ayodhya Ram Temple site

Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, president of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust, visited the site after 28 years, and announced that construction work on the site has finally begun.

Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh):The construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, which was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, has finally started, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, the Ram Temple Trust's president, said on Monday.

The seer, who visited the site of the temple after a long gap of 28 years, said that the construction began today, and will now continue.

Earlier this month, the levelling work using heavy earth moving machinery began on May 11.

The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust reported that a five-foot Shivalinga, seven black touchstone pillars, six red sandstone pillars, a "flower pinnacle" and four broken idols of gods and goddesses were found from the site.

In a historic verdict last November on the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, the Supreme Court had ruled in favour of construction of a temple. It also ordered that an alternative five-acre plot must be found for a mosque within Ayodhya.

Read:Shiva Linga, other relics unearthed at Ayodhya Ram Temple site

The 16th-century Babri mosque that stood on the disputed site in Ayodhya was demolished in 1992 by kar sevaks claiming that originally there was a Ram temple at the same spot.

Earlier in March this year, the Ram Lalla idol in Ayodhya was shifted to a temporary new location in the presence of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, clearing the site to allow construction of a Ram temple

The idol of Ram Lalla was placed on a 9.5-kg silver throne in the new structure where the idol would remain till the construction of the Ram temple is completed on the site.

The construction work was to beging after the idol was shifted, but with a nationwide lockdown imposed in view of COVID-19 all work was halted on the site, till levelling work finally started on May 11.

(With inputs from PTI)