Massive Facelift Of Ayodhya In The Offing, Where 'Development' Would Accord Primacy To Spiritual Ethos

Spread over 875 sq km, Ayodhya, the birthplace of Lord Rama, is slated to get a massive facelift in the coming years.

With a lot of focus on landscape and river front development of the Saryu river for beautification around the temple, the proposed greenfield city would have special architectural features and will have a distinct colour scheme for all buildings that would come up in the future.

The proposed greenfield city across 1,200 acres is expected to emerge as a major tourist attraction in the country.

The Uttar Pradesh government has appointed Delhi-based CP Kukreja Architects, along with LEA Associates South Asia, and infrastructure major L&T to prepare the vision, implementation strategy and integrated infrastructure plan for the city.

According to architects involved in the project, the city of Ayodhya has deep significance and sentiments attached with it. The plan envisages
transformation of Ayodhya into a world-class city amplifying its historic and religious values.

According to the plan, besides buildings, the focus will be to preserve the tranquility and spirituality of the city.

The detailed plan for the entire city, including the existing one and the proposed greenfield city, would be ready in the next six months.

The plan aims at leveraging tourism as an engine of growth for regional economic development. The Master Plan of Ayodhya would be developed based on contextual planning as opposed to greenfield development and hence there will be a huge focus on retaining the heritage of the city. The plan will be integrated with its spiritual aspects as well.

There are plans to develop the city infrastructure so that it can become a hub of traditional healthcare, Vedic education and other cultural activities.
As per the initial plan, which is under preparation, the planning will be experience-based and not on regular zoning concepts.

The planner will refer to case studies of best experiential international cities such as Vatican City and Venice, and Indian examples such as Amritsar, Varanasi, Madurai and Tirupati.

There will be a huge focus on the heritage assets of the city, which will include retrofitting and redevelopment of the core city area and temple influence zone.

There will be special attention to the Shri Ram Mandir area of 108 acres for seamless integration.

The plan will also include curating tourism experiences for heritage and other areas of interest such as public places and events, river front development of Saryu, water sports and three parikrama margas with adequate facilities.