Only Rs 50 lakhs in hand for Ayodhya mosque mega project, costing Rs 300 crore
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Lucknow: The Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) trust, which has taken up an ambitious three-tier project that aims to build a mosque, charity hospital, community kitchen, library, and research centre in Ayodhya, says it could release only a meagre amount of Rs 50 lakh for a project that set Rs 300 crores as the initial budget.
The mosque and the other infrastructural facilities will be built on the 5 acres of land that were handed over to the UP Waqf board by the Uttar Pradesh government following the Supreme Court verdict on the Ayodhya dispute of Ram Janmabhoomi - Babri Masjid.
The designated land is located 25 kilometres away from the site of the dispute, in Dhannipur village of Sohawal District. In 2020, after the land transfer, the Waqf Board established the IICF to oversee this large-scale project.
Athar Hussein, the Secretary of IICF, stated, “As of now, the Trust has only Rs 50 lakh to begin the construction of the mosque. Therefore, the project will be executed in phases. The total budget for the project is Rs 300 crore, with around Rs 10 crore allocated for the construction of the mosque and the remaining funds allocated to other projects.”
“In the first phase, the Trust aims to construct the mosque only, covering a 3,500 square meter area. However, the proposed construction of a four-story super speciality charity hospital and a community kitchen in 24,150 square meters, a museum in 500 square meters, and an Indo-Islamic Research Centre in 2,300 square meters may face delays as the expected funds are not coming in as anticipated,” he added.
Furthermore, he mentioned that “The capacity of the proposed hospital would be 100 beds initially, which will later be expanded to 200 beds. Similarly, the community kitchen will start by cooking food daily for 1,000 underprivileged people and will be later expanded to serve 2,000 people.”
With the new changes, the trust is now awaiting approval from the Ayodhya Development Authority (ADA) for the revised map. The IIFC Secretary commented that “Once the new map is approved, we will begin the construction of the mosque. The construction of the mosque will take at least a year.”