Ayodhya: trust overseeing mosque construction puts plan for hospital on hold

The paucity of funds has forced the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation Trust to defer the construction of a hospital in Ayodhya's Dhannipur, the location where the Waqf board was granted land after the historic Ram Mandir Supreme Court verdict in 2019.

According to its members, the trust had originally planned to build the hospital first, and a mosque later, but was held back by the lack of money it is required to pay in fees and development charges.

Athar Hussain, the secretary and spokesperson of the trust, said the project will now be taken up in several small phases.

"We have put the project on hold for now due to paucity of funds. Despite the difficulty, we will not shelf the project, but will change the strategy. We will divide the project into several small projects," Hussain told PTI.

"We will submit a new map of the mosque to the Ayodhya Development Authority. The mosque will take less money to build. It will be very easy to arrange it," he said.

According to Hussain, the mosque, to be built over 15,000 square feet, will cost Rs 8-10 crore and will be powered with solar panels.

Hussain said the mosque was supposed to come after the hospital, but the trust could not shore up Rs 300 crore needed to build it.