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Ram temple cannot be ready before 2001, says architect

The Ram temple at Ayodhya cannot be built within two to four months, but will take at least 2,000 workers to work non-stop till November 2001 to complete the construction and assembly work, says the architect and designer of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's proposed temple.

''At the present speed of work, it will take at least ten to twelve more years to complete the work,'' Chandrakant Sompura said in an interview to a televiision channel.

He said only 25 per cent of the stone work has been completed so far in workshops in Sirohi and Ayodhya, and it would take between six and eight months to complete the ground preparation and digging the foundation.

Sompura, who has constructed a temple in London in a similar manner by assembling pre-carved stone columns, wall stones and floor tiles, said the carving of 68 stone pillars for the ground floor of the Nrutya Mandap was almost complete. "But work on the Nritya Mandap was still in progress."

''It will take at least three years to erect the main structure of two floors, provided we work day and night,'' he said.

The stone columns and other parts of the temple, being chiselled in Sirohi and Ayodhya workshops since 1990, would be transported to the final temple site and assembled together to construct the temple, he said. It would take at least one year to complete the final assembly work at the temple site, he added.

UNI

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