NEW DELHI : The Centre has drawn up big plans for Ayodhya, though not for construction of the Ram Mandir.
Unable to meet the Sangh Parivar’s craving for building the temple at the razed Babri Mosque site in view of the dispute locked up in the Supreme Court, the Modi government is doing the next best to kick off a Ramayana circuit from Ayodhya to bring Lord Ram in focus as it will also ensure political gains to the BJP in the poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.
The tourism ministry has just cleared a Rs 245-crore project to boost spiritual tourism identifying 11 destinations in six states that are linked with Lord Ram and depicted in the epics by Valmiki and Tulsidas. The locations to be covered in the first phase, all in Uttar Pradesh, are Ayodhya, Nandigram, Shringverpur and Chitrakoot and it would cost the exchequer Rs 118.39 crore.
Idea is to establish facilities in these towns, highlighting the life and times of Ram with various religious proofs of episodes from his era. The ministry has proposed expenditure of Rs 55 crore in Ayodhya, out of which Rs 50 crore will be spent to give a living experience of Ram in Ayodhya and Rs 5 crore tourist facilitation centre at Ayodhya’s old bus stand.
Asked if the tourism infrastructure would be set up around the disputed site at Ayodhya, Tourism Assistant director general Bharati Kashyap Sharma said: “We really need to zero on the exact locations following the UP government’s suggestions on the matter.”
Other locations linked with Ram, such as Sitamarhi, Buxar and Darbhanga in Bihar, Jagalpur in Chhattisgarh, Bhadrachalam in Telangana, Hampi in Karnataka and Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu will be developed in the next phase. The expert committee constituted to draw up the Ramayana circuit also suggested inclusion of Nashik and Nagpur in Maharashtra, Chitrakoot in Madhya Pradesh and Mahendragiri in Odisha.
Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma chaired on June 14, the first meeting of the national panel on the Ramayana circuit planned under the Centre’s Swadesh Darshan Scheme that aims for integrated development of the theme-based tourist circuits. Subsequently, a detailed projct report (DPR) was prepared June end.
Tracing the religious and historical route, the project will capture the ancient times when the city of Ayodhya was founded by Manu, claimed to be the first man in the universe as per the Vedas, on the banks of the river Ghanghara about 9,000 years ago. The city will also be shown as the capital of the solar dynasty (Suryavansh), of which Ram was the most celebrated king.Besides installation of the state-of-the-art audiovisual facility for dynamic audio-visual show to be watched from open-air theatre or outdoor landscapes with outdoor seating arrangements, Ayodhya will have a Ram gallery theme with focus on 10 different episodes of his life, including Bala-kand, Ayodhya-kand, Aranya-kand, Kishkindha-kand, Sundara-kand, Lanka-kand, Uttara-kand, Lav-Kush-kand and Ram darbar.
These thematic components will showcase life-size sculptures of Valmiki and Tulsidas, wall-to-wall scripts, large-screen interface depicting differences in Ramayana of Valmiki and Tulsidas that the visitors can scroll through to get a comprehensive knowledge of the deity.
The entire hallway of the Ayodhya-kand will be decorated like a palace with sophisticated audiovisual effects and animation to help the visitors soak in the religious mood of the place. Similarly, the entire Aranya-kand will be jungle-based, depicting the lives of Sita, Ram and Laxman while depicting Sita’s rasoi (kitchen), apart from an AV creation of the golden deer being hunted by Ram. The final attraction will be the corridor where a mechanical “Pushpak Viman” will take Sita and Ravan and depict his fight with Jatayu. Also to be developed is the Nandigram village close to Ayodhya in Faizabad district which is famous for the Bharat-Hanuman Milan Mandir and Bharat-kund.
The project also envisages a budget of Rs 49.65 crore for Chitrakoot to set up the visitors’ amenities, public convenience, drinking water facility, Wi-Fi and CCTV facilities, etc. located along the holy Mandakini river.
