Ayodhya’s grand temple to match ‘Smart’ makeover

AYODHYA: With a magnificent Ram temple coming up in Ayodhya soon, the Yogi Adityanath government is busy remodelling the ancient pilgrimage town’s infrastructure around a smart city. From civic makeovers like laying underground power lines, constructing a modern sewage system to widening roads to constructing an international airport, the government is determined to catapult the temple town on the global tourism map, while retaining its intrinsic religious character.
TOI has accessed the power-point presentation shown to the chief minister during his Ayodhya visit two days ago to review development projects.
Besides the micro makeover like concretization of roads, lanes and drains, at least 50 big-ticket projects are in the pipeline. These include a modern bus station with a sprawling parking space, an international airport with direct flights to Europe and the US, eye theme park based on the life of Lord Ram and an international Ramayana Museum. A government inter college is also scheduled to come up. The power-point presentation to the chief minister at the Faizabad Circuit House was made in the presence of district officials and senior BJP leaders.
Talking to TOI, Ayodhya MLA Ved Gupta said, “Ayodhya is being developed as India’s Vatican.
To link the world with the temple town, an international airport is being developed at Dharmapur Sahadant village near the four-lane highway connecting Faizabad and Ayodhya.
The blueprint has been hammered out and Rs 400crore has been approved for land acquisition. And the process has begun,” said Gupta.
The Eye Theme Park to come up on a sprawling 50acre plot will be based on the life of Ram and will recreate the Lord’s journey from birth to exile to his return to Ayodhya. The project’s eye-catcher will be the symbolic ‘Ram Setu’ — the Adam’s bridge connecting Lanka to India through a chain of shoals that winds its way to ‘Shabri Garden' and finally Ashok Vatika in a make-believe ambience of Ravana’s capital.
Adjacent to the Theme Park will be an International Ramayana Museum which will recreate the characters of Ramayana. A 251m-tall statue of Lord Rama is proposed to be erected beside the park. These constructions will be restricted to the 5km periphery of Ramjanmabhoomi, said Gupta, one of the brains behind the project. “The Saryu river, which finds mention in the scriptures, will be cleaned under the Namami Gange project and Rs 38 crore has been allocated for this mission,” he said.