The donation campaign for the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya began on Friday. With this many industrialists and businessmen from Gujarat have announced large amounts as donations, reports The Indian Express.

Speaking at a fund raising event at Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) office in Ahmedabad, the deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat Nitin Patel has urged the public to make Gujarat the highest donor for the temple in India.

Among the leading donors from the state are Morari Bapu, a popular discourser on Ramcharitmanas, who donated the highest amount of Rs 18 crore followed by Rs 11 crore from Govind Dholakia, a diamond businessman from Surat.

Also, several other diamond merchants from Surat made donations for the Ram temple.

“We are going to organize a fundraising program in Surat on Saturday and we hope that Surat will be on the top in the state in terms of donation,” Dholakia said.

Other major donors are Jayanti Kabutarwala, director of Surat based Colourtex company, who gave a cheque for Rs 5 crore and Lavji Badshah, a real estate businessman, who donated Rs 1 crore.

Hitendrasinh Rajput, spokesperson of VHP, said that a total of Rs 14 crore was collected in Ahmedabad and Rs 30 crore in total from North Gujarat on Friday.

The construction of the grand temple of Lord Ram at the ancient city of Ayodhya is estimated to cost around Rs 1,100 crore, of which around Rs 300-400 crore will be the cost of building the main temple structure.

The Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, the body responsible for building Ram Temple, is conducting a fundraising campaign from till 27 February. The trust plans to involve 55 crore family members of 12 crore Hindu families from more than five lakh villages in this initiative.