The first phase of construction of the grand Ram temple will be completed by December 30 this year, chairman of the Ram Mandir Construction Committee Nripendra Mishra said here on Monday while talking to the media.

He said the temple is being constructed in three phases, but devotees will be able to enter the temple after the completion of the first phase.

Apart from other works on the ground floor, the construction work of five pavilions would be completed in the first phase. He said that the Trust has decided that the work of the first phase of the Ram temple should be completed by December 30. About 160 pillars have been used in the construction of five pavilions and the work of iconography (visual images and symbols) should be completed in them.

On the other hand, the second floor will be completed by December 30, 2024.

After a two-day meeting of the Ram Mandir Construction Committee, Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has made it clear that a little bit of work is left and it will end by September 15.

“After this, the stones of Mirzapur will be used to raise the plinth, that work will start by the end of October. While by December 2023, the ground floor of Ram temple will be established and Ramlala’s idol will be established.

In the first phase, a brief description of Lord Rama will start on the lower plinth of the temple and electricity and other facilities will be completed. He said the work on the first and second floors of the temple including the parkota (outer perimeter) would be completed by December 30 next year.

He also said that the temple idol would be installed and devotees would be able to visit by the end of this year. On the question of when the entire temple will be ready, Mishra said that the temple will be ready by December 2025.

In the meeting of temple trust and construction committee, there was a special discussion that if lakhs of people come together to have darshan, then how all of them would be given systematic darshan.

As more than 5 lakh Ram devotees will visit the fair held in Ayodhya every day, in such a situation special care will have to be taken to ensure that every devotee of Ram should have darshan of Lord Shri Ram and no one should face any problem, Mishra said.

He said the idol of Ramlala will be prepared in such a way that the rays of the sun fall directly on his brain. It has also been decided that the way the Shyam character of Ramlala is described and for that a stone will be found which is sky blue and slightly gray in colour. The team of Ram Mandir Trust will go to different places to inspect such stones.

He said that the cost of construction of Ram temple would range from Rs 1400 crore to Rs 1800 crore. A minimum of Rs 300 crores will be spent on the construction of the ground floor.