LUCKNOW: After a meeting of the members of Shree Ram Janambhoomi Teerath Kshetra Trust in New Delhi on Thursday, Trust general secretary and VHP leader Champat Rai claimed that iron would not be used in the temple construction. “Rather copper sheets donated by the devotees would be used to build the temple.
As per an estimation, over 10,000 copper sheets would be used in temple construction,” said Rai on Thursday.
During the meeting, the trustees decided to rope in Roorkee-based Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) and IIT-Madras to test the soil of Ram Janambhoomi premises and the temple site. The exercise, the trust said, was being assisted by the experts and engineers of Larsen and Toubro which is the key construction agency for construction of the temple.
The trust also took to Twitter to make some more announcements regarding the construction of the temple saying it was expected to be completed in 36 to 40 months (3 to 3.5 years) time.
The trust tweeted that the copper sheets to be used in construction would come handy in fusing stone blocks with each other. The plates should be 18 inches long, 30 mm wide, and 3 mm in depth. “Over 10,000 such plates will be required for construction,” the trust said exhorting the devotees of Lord Ram to come forward and donate such copper sheets to the trust.
As per a statement of Champat Rai, donors could engrave family names, place of origin, or their community temples’ names on these sheets. “This way the copper plates will not only symbolise the unity of this country but also be a testament of the entire country’s contribution towards Mandir construction,”
said the statement.
The trust also tweeted the details of the bank account where people can make donations, amid the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) plans of reaching out to over 3 lakh villages and 700 cities across the countries to crowdfund the project.
Earlier, L&T had constructed the pre-fabricated bullet-proof temporary abode for Ram Lalla. L&T is the main construction agency of the temple which will be built in the Nagara style of architecture by using ancient technology so that it could withstand natural calamities including earthquakes and have a life span of around 1,000 years.