Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, which was demolished on 6 December 1992
Ayodhya: The foundation stone for the much-awaited mosque, in lieu of the demolished Babri Masjid in Ayodhya will be laid on 26 January, the 71st anniversary of Indian Republic.
The mosque will be built on the five acres of land mandated by Supreme Court following the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid final verdict.
The blueprint for the mosque, designed to be a round-shaped structure, will be unveiled on Saturday.
The masjid will come up, 20km away from the Ram Janmabhoomi site, at Dhannipur village, exactly six months after the Sunni Waqf Board constituted the mosque trust -- Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation.
"The Trust chose January 26, 2021, for laying the foundation of the Ayodhya mosque as on this day our Constitution came into effect more than seven decades ago. Our constitution is based on pluralism, which is the leitmotif of our mosque project," said Athar Hussain, secretary of Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation.
The blueprint of the mosque and other facilities, including a multi-speciality hospital, community kitchen and library will be unveiled by the Mosque Trust on Saturday as per the plans finalized by chief architect Professor S.M. Akhtar.
"The mosque will have the capacity of 2,000 namazis at a time and the structure will be round-shaped," Prof Akhtar told IANS.
"The new mosque will be bigger than Babri Masjid, but will not be a lookalike of the structure which once stood in the Ram Janmabhoomi premises."
"The hospital of course will hold centrestage on the five-acre plot allotted to the Sunni Waqf Board at Dhannipur village in Ayodhya. The hospital will serve humanity in the true spirit of Islam as taught by the Prophet in his last sermon 1,400 years ago.
"The hospital will not be the usual concrete structure, but will be in-sync with the architecture of the mosque, replete with calligraphy and Islamic symbols. It will house a 300-bed speciality unit, where doctors will work with missionary zeal to provide free treatment to the ailing," said Akhtar.
"The mosque will be self-powered and efficient, as its design is based on solar energy and natural temperature maintenance system," said Akhtar.
"When we talk about the hospital project at Dhannipur one thing is sure that it will be a multi-speciality hospital. It will be an efficient hospital and for efficient hospital we need good medical facility in terms of equipments, human resources and it can really help people in time of urgent medical needs.
"We have done certain surveys also along with medical teams and our field workers that will address the issue of malnourishment, specially among the girl child and even adult women. This is one of the main reason for disease transfer from generation to generation.
"Additional facility will be the community kitchen to cater to the needs of nearby areas fulfilling nourishment requirements in terms of good quality of meals twice a day," said Athar Hussain IICF secretary.
"Along with the hospital, we can establish nursing and paramedic college to provide human resources to the hospital. We can manage doctors from local resources from Faizabad and for specialized need in terms of critical surgeries we have a group of prominent doctors in prominent government and private institutions who wish to offer their services," said Hussain.
"For funding of the hospital, we really look forward to corporate funding. There are many donors who are willing to help when we get 80G approval. Then we will go for FCRA and get funds from Muslims of Indian origin," he added.
Also Read:Babri demolition case – Chronology
(Based on IANS feed with minor edits)