Ayodhya Dham railway station expansion next on Centre’s agenda

The Ayodhya Dham railway station is all set for expansion as the Union government has issued a notification to acquire land for the project.

This will be the first mega project of the Modi 3.0 government for Ayodhya.

For the second phase of the project, the government will acquire 6.5 hectares of land. Around 50% of the land is vacant and the remaining 50% has residential colonies. In the notification issued on June 6, the government has listed areas where land will be acquired.

In the next 30 days from the date of notification, people will have the right to raise objections, if any, in connection with the acquisition of land.

The first phase of the Ayodhya Dham Railway station was launched in 2018 and came up at a budget of ₹150 crore.

“With the announcement of this project, the Centre has made it clear that there will be no slackening in the pace of development projects in Ayodhya,” said Girishpati Tripathi, mayor of Ayodhya.

The last major project for which the state government had acquired land in Ayodhya was related to the widening of roads. They were Ram Path, Bhakti Path and Dharma Path.

Another major project for which land will have to be acquired in Ayodhya is the New Ayodhya Township or the GreenField Township. It will span 1,407 acres on both sides of Lucknow-Gorakhpur highway. The housing and urban planning department is executing the project.

The township will have a lake replenished with water from River Saryu to give a spiritual look to the new township. The state government has conceptualised it to decongest the temple town.

However, it will not be easy for the state government to go ahead with the township project as acquisition of land will face opposition from farmers.

The township will have a 2-km elevated stretch of road to reach the township, residential plots, group housing, commercial plots, ashram/ mutts and international guest houses among others.