Hope revived, says temple architect

Chandrakant Sompura had created Ram temple model 40 years ago, used by VHP

One more connection of Gujarat with the Ram temple in Ayodhya is the temple's existing model. It was created around 40 years ago by renowned city-based temple architect Chandrakant Sompura.

Talking to Mirror, the 77-year-old artist said that his hope for construction of the Ram temple has been revived with the Supreme Court verdict.

"I had created the model of the Ram temple in 1980 and 40% of the work has been completed. The work was stalled for five years and now after the Supreme court verdict, we hope the temple building activities will be resumed," said Sompura.

The Sompura family has worked on construction of famous temples like Somnath in Saurashtra, Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar, Ambaji temple in Banaskantha, Bahucharaji temple near Mehsana, Krishna Janmbhoomi in Mathura and Swaminarayan temple in London, apart from many Jain temples.

Will the temple will be constructed as per the same design? "I don't know about that. Earlier the work was assigned to me by the VHP, but as per the SC order, a trust will be formed for temple construction. Everything depends upon them," said Sompura. His model was taken to Ayodhya in 1989 and based on its photographs, the VHP had collected donation from people across the nation. AM