Sastry is following the Ayodhya-Rameswaram route, mirroring Lord Ram’s ‘Vanavas’ (exile) in reverse. Sastry is retracing the steps by carrying gold-plated footwear, made with ‘panch dhatu’ (five metals) worth Rs 65 lakh ($78,133) for Lord Ram and intends to present the article to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath upon reaching Ayodhya. Sastry had previously donated five silver bricks to the Ram Temple.

Sastry started the journey on July 20 last year, stopping along the Shiva Lingas established by Lord Ram. The devotee hopes to reach Ayodhya in the next 10 days, having visited important landmarks such as Puri in Odisha, Trimbak in Maharashtra and Dwaraka in Gujarat.

“My father participated in ‘kar seva’ in Ayodhya. He was a strong devotee of Lord Hanuman. His desire was to see the Ram temple built in Ayodhya. As he is no more, I decided to fulfill his desire,” Sastry said as quoted by PTI.

After the journey, Sastry plans to settle down permanently in Ayodhya by constructing a house in the sacred city.

As per reports, Hyderabad Police raised a concern over security with the revised World Cup schedule leaving Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium to host back-to-back matches. The venue will host New Zealand-Netherlands tie on October 9. It will be followed by the match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka on the very next day. The Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) has sent an official request to the BCCI to increase the gap between the two matches.

The development happened just over a week since ICC announced major changes to the schedule of the mega event, making as many as nine changes, including that of the blockbuster tie between hosts India and Pakistan.

HCA has informed that back-to-back World Cup matches will lead to inadequate security for the Pakistan game.

However, it is yet to be seen whether BCCI will respond to the request having recently made nine changes to the original World Cup owing to security issues in Ahmedabad and Kolkata.