Ayodhya: The Uttar Pradesh government night unveiled the picture of the grand statue of Lord Ram that it proposes to install in Ayodhya.
A 221-metre statue of Lord Ram will come up in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh Principal Secretary (Information) Avanish Awasthi said. While the height of the actual statue would be 151 metres, its overhead umbrella would be 20 metres while the pedestal would be 50 metres, he said.
A museum would be housed at the pedestal, Awasthi said.
He also said that the statue would be in bronze. Five firms shortlisted for construction of the statue gave presentations before Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the officer said, adding soil testing is being done for installing the statue.
Meanwhile, the temple town of Ayodhya has been turned into a virtual fortress ahead of Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s massive ‘Dharma Sabha’ today to push for a grand Ram Temple at the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site. The ‘Dharma Sabha’ will be held at Bade Bhakt Mal Ki Baghia, around 300 metres from the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas workshop.
The organisers of ‘Dharma Sabha’ had claimed that nearly 3 lakh ‘devotees’ will attend the event, which has triggered some apprehension over the safety of the Muslim community in the temple town.
The temple town has been turned into a virtual fortress with multiple layers of security and deployment of drones as people in large numbers of arriving here to participate in VHP’s `Dharma Sabha’ here. Samajwadi Party and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said the Army should be deployed in Ayodhya, if needed, to maintain law and order.