8-member expert panel set up to supervise Ram temple foundation-laying work

The Ram temple construction committee has set up an eight-member panel of India’s top engineers and structural experts headed by IIT-Delhi’s former Director V S Raju to supervise the foundation laying work for the temple. The other members of the panel are CBRI-Rookie Director N Gopal Krishnan, NIT-Surat Director S R Gandhi, IIT-Guwahati Director T G Sitaram, IIT-Delhi’s professor emeritus B Bhattacharji, TCI advisor A P Mull besides Manu Santhanam of IIT-Madras and Pradipt Banerjee of IIT-Bombay.

The panel was set up through a notification by the Ram Construction Committee, said Ayodhya’s BJP MLA Ved Gupta on Sunday. "The Trust has constituted an expert committee of eminent engineers in the relevant field for the review and recommendations on the foundation design," said Gupta.

The objective is to construct the temple with the highest quality and longevity taking into account the various geotechnical suggestions, he added. In the wake of the finding of sandy soil a few feet below the ground at the proposed temple construction site, the Ram Temple Construction Committee headed by Nripendra Mishra, the former principal secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had held a meeting last week to finalise the foundation laying plan for temple. The meeting was held in consultation with building experts from Larsen & Toubro and Tata Consulting Engineers Limited to discuss and finalise the layout plan for the temple.