Ayodhya (UP), Dec 29 (PTI) In a bid to facilitate a smooth movement for the devotees, who may find it difficult to reach the first floor of Lord Ram temple in Ayodhya, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust will be installing three lifts within the temple premises, an official said.
"We have told you on earlier occasions that the temple of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi is a three-storeyed one. Ram Lalla, who is present on the ground floor, is visited by lakhs of devotees on a daily basis. On the first floor, there will be the Lord's 'Darbar' (court), there will be the family (of the Lord). There will be a floor above that as well in which there is a sanctum sanctorum. It is not yet decided what will be in that," Anil Mishra, a member of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, told reporters late Saturday evening.
Mishra said that people, who are going to see Ram 'Darbar', can go from the first floor using the stairs.
"For those people who want to go up, but cannot do it with the help of stairs, we have made arrangements for them to go to the temple from the 'Parkota' long back. The 'Parkota', which connects the corridors of the temples, will be completed. Those who want to go up for darshan will go from behind the temple, arrangements are being made to install a lift there," Mishra said.
"When the 'Parkota' is built, a lift will be installed. The construction agency is making arrangements for installing the lifts. Two lifts will be installed. One lift of big size, which can be used by wheel chair-bound devotees. In this way, there will be a lift in the north direction from where the VIP entry is. A small lift will be installed for the prominent people and saints who come. In this way, arrangements for three lifts are being made in the parks," he added.
Mishra said 'Parkota' connects the corridors of the temple.
Reacting to the development, Prajjwal Singh, who runs a hotel near Tulsi Udyan in Ayodhya, told PTI, "The step taken by the Ram Temple Trust to install lifts in order to help the elderlies and the physically-challenged, who come from far and wide braving a host of adverse circumstance only to have the glimpse of their Ram Lalla, is indeed a welcome step. This will certainly prove to be a boon for the devotees from different walks of life."
He added that visitors, who had been coming to his hotel, have been saying that once the lift is installed in the Ram Temple premises and it starts functioning, the footfalls will definitely go up.
Sixty nine-year-old Ratnesh Varma, a resident of Lucknow, who visited the temple before Deepavali was of the view that once the lifts are installed in the temple premises, it will prove to be of great help to the senior citizens visiting the temple, especially in the winter months.
"Once the lifts are installed and they start functioning, people from all age-groups can easily reach different floors of the temple and have the glimpse of the Gods and Goddesses," he said.
Himanshu Kumar, a resident of Lucknow, was of the view that the operation of lifts will prove to be "very helpful" for a large number of devotees, who arrive at the temple everyday.
Meanwhile, Ayodhya Mayor Girish Pati Tripathi told PTI that the "installation of lifts will definitely help the devotees" visiting the temple.
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