New Delhi: More than five months after a partially-built Ram Mandir was inaugurated in the Ayodhya town of Uttar Pradesh, its construction has come under question with the season’s first showers leading to the leakage of rain water from structure’s roof.
The temple’s head priest, Acharya Satyendra Das, said on Monday (June 24) that water had started to leak from the roof of the temple, including the portion where the idol of Ram Lalla was installed.
Das appealed to the authorities to take immediate remedial steps and warned that if the situation prevails when the monsoons arrive in full swing, prayers and rituals (puja–archana) in the temple would have to be stopped.
Rainfall is expected over parts of eastern UP in the coming days, according to a weekly forecast by the Meteorological Centre in Lucknow.
The Ram Mandir was opened to the public on January 22 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi presided over a state-organised pran pratishtha or consecration ceremony amid criticisms by some prominent Hindu seers and opposition leaders that it was not proper to inaugurate an incomplete temple.
The opposition accused the Modi-led government of inaugurating the temple to cash in on the sentiments of Hindus in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
The Mandir was constructed at the site where the Babri Masjid stood for many centuries, following the orders of the Supreme Court after a long-drawn legal battle that polarised the country.
When the temple was launched in January, the government said that its foundation had been constructed with a 14-metre-thick layer of roller-compacted concrete and that for protection against ground moisture, a 21-foot-high plinth was constructed using granite.
The temple complex has a sewage treatment plant, a water treatment plant, water supply for fire safety and an independent power station.
However, with Das drawing attention to the alleged leakage of rain water in the temple, which was built in the traditional Nagara style at an estimated cost of Rs 1,800 crore, concerns have shifted to its drainage mechanism.
Talking to news agency ANI, Das said that rain water that was leaking from the roof was collecting in the temple’s sanctum sanctorum and that there was no way to flush it out.
“With the first rains, water seepage has started in the temple, where Ram Lalla is seated and the areas near it. Water has collected inside. It must be found out what is lacking in the construction in the part of the temple already built. What is causing the water seepage,” Das said.
Das’s comments came a day after Nripendra Misra, the chairperson of the trust committee entrusted with the temple’s construction, said the entire mandir complex was likely to be completed by March 2025, while the first and second floors would be wrapped up by the end of July and December this year, respectively.
The priest, while welcoming the stated timeline for the structure’s completion, said focus must also be laid on the parts already constructed.
“There is no space to eject the water. Water is leaking from the top,” said Das, who has been handling the puja at the site since 1992 at the makeshift Ram Temple.
The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, which manages the temple and its construction, is yet to comment on the leakage problem raised by Das. The Ayodhya administration has also not issued any explanation or clarification.
The Congress raised the issue on social media site X and accused the BJP government of indulging in “corruption” in the name of Ram.
Misra, in a statement published by ANI, said that there was no issue with the temple’s design or construction.
Responding to Das’s statement, Misra said: “I am in Ayodhya. I saw the rainwater dropping from the first floor. This is expected because [the] guru mandap is exposed to the sky as the second floor and completion of [a] shikhar will cover this opening. I also saw some seepage from the conduit as this work on the first floor is in progress. On completion, the conduit will be closed.”
Misra further said that there was “no drainage in the sanctum sanctorum because all the mandaps have measured slope[s] for [the] clearance of water and the water in Sanctum Santorum is manually absorbed.”
Moreover, the devotees are not performing ‘abhishek’ on the deity, he added.
“There is no design or construction issue. The mandaps which are open may get rainwater drops which was debated, but the decision was to keep them open as per Nagar architectural norms,” said the former bureaucrat.
Das, later speaking to PTI, said it was “very surprising” that water was leaking from the roof of the temple. “So many engineers are here …Nobody would have thought of such a thing,” he said.
The alleged leakage of water in the temple was not the only matter of concern for the authorities caused by rainfall. Parts of some roads built in the town collapsed due to the first flush of rains, drawing criticism on social media.
Several social media users, including the official X handle of the UP Congress, also claimed that a 20-metre long boundary wall of the Ayodhya Dham railway station, inaugurated by Modi in December, had collapsed due to the rains.
“This is not BJP’ development, but the development of corruption,” said the UP Congress, posting photos and videos of the wall collapse.
The authorities, however, clarified that the wall shown in the video was not a part of the main station building but was located between the railway and private land.
“It collapsed because of excavation work by private people from the other end and water logging in a private area. Railway will take immediate action,” said the Divisional Railway Manager, Lucknow, Northern Railways, in a statement.
The new railway station was inaugurated by Modi in December 2023, ahead of the launch of the Ram Mandir. The first phase of the redeveloped Ayodhya railway station – the Ayodhya Dham Junction railway station — was developed at a cost of more than Rs 240 crore.
The three-storey modern railway station building is equipped with “modern features” such as lifts, escalators, food plazas, shops for puja needs, cloak rooms and child care rooms, as well as waiting halls.
