Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Wednesday lay the foundation stone for the construction of a Ram temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya. He will be in the city for three hours tomorrow.
According to the official itinerary released on Tuesday, the prime minister will start from Delhi at 9:35 am, and the groundbreaking is ceremony is scheduled to take place after noon. The PM will first go to Lucknow on a special plane from Delhi, and from there to Ayodhya on a helicopter.
He will straightaway go to Hanuman Garhi for Lord Hanuman’s darshan. The temple is being decorated ahead of the prime minister’s visit.
Special puja and Vedic rituals have been going on at the ceremony venue since Monday. Prayers are also being held at Hanuman Garhi.
PM Modi will reach the Ram Janmabhoomi site at noon, where he will visit Ram Lalla (infant Lord Ram) for 10 minutes, according to the itinerary. He will then participate in a tree plantation programme in the premises.
The main programme of bhoomi poojan will begin at 12:30 pm and PM Modi will lay five silver bricks as the temple foundation amid the chanting of religious hymns at 12:40 pm. The priests and religious leaders supervising the entire event said that the muhurat (auspicious moment) will last only for 32 seconds.
The prime minister will also meet Swami Nrityagopal Das and other members of the Ram Janmabhoomi trust after the programme. He will leave for the helipad at 2:05 pm and for Lucknow at 2:20 pm.
At Ram Janmabhoomi, 21 priests started Vedic rituals at around 9 am on Tuesday for Ramacharya puja. Several other Vedic rituals will also be performed later in the day.
Eight priests from Ayodhya, five each from Varanasi and Delhi and three from Kamikochi in Tamil Nadu are performing the rituals at Ram Janmabhoomi for the construction of the temple.
Ayodhya has been decked up for the event. Scenes from the popular stories of Ramayana have been etched on to the walls and other structures of the city on the road which PM Modi will use to reach the groundbreaking ceremony venue.
More than 100,000 oil lamps will light up the city in celebration, said chief priest Satyendra Das.
A security clampdown, however, will allow only limited entry to devotees into Ayodhya because of the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, a priest and 15 police officers in the area tested positive for Covid-19.