Bhubaneswar: The Indian Railways is planning to run over 1,000 special trains from different parts of the country for devotees as Ayodhya braces for a grand inauguration of the newly-built Ram Janmabhoomi Temple on January 22.
These trains will begin operation on January 19 and will go on for the first 100 days of the grand inauguration. The trains will run from major cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune, Kolkata, Nagpur, Lucknow and Jammu to Ayodhya.
“The number of these proposed trains can be deployed considering the demand. The station at Ayodhya has also been revamped to cater to the high number of footfalls,” the publication reported quoting the source.
Apart from the special trains, the railways’ catering and ticketing department is also making arrangements to provide catering services for pilgrims round the clock during these 10-15 days of the inauguration as a large number of devotees are expected to flock to Ayodhya. The authorities also plan to put up several food stalls to cater to the demand of the devotees after the inauguration of the Ram Mandir.
The redeveloped Ayodhya railways station now can handle daily footfall of around 50,000 persons and is set to be fully ready by January 15.
The temple will be open to the public from January 23, a day after the consecration of Lord Sri Ram’s idol.
The ground level of the grand Ram Mandir in Ayodhya is expected to be completed by the end of this year, with the temple scheduled for inauguration on January 22, 2024.
The ceremony to install the Ram Lalla idol on the temple premises is set to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, attracting lakhs of Ram devotees to Ayodhya for the auspicious occasion.
The Ram Mandir Trust is responsible for the arrangements surrounding the Ayodhya Ram Mandir inauguration.
Devotees entering the temple premises will have the opportunity to see Lord Ram Lalla from a distance of 320 feet. However, after darshan and worship, prasad will not be distributed to the devotees.
Special arrangements are in place to provide prasad to all devotees on the inauguration day.
Devotees will be organised into four rows for darshan.
One and a half to two and a half lakh people expected to visit the temple in a day.
