Ayodhya railway station to be built on temple model: Goyal

New Delhi, February 21

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal today said the railways is planning to build Ayodhya station on the model of a temple to connect people to Lord Ram's birthplace and there was nothing objectionable if its design was the one conceptualised by the VHP for the Ram Janmabhoomi temple.

Responding to a question on reports of railways' junior minister Manoj Sinha's comments yesterday in Ayodhya, where he said that the railway station would be built as a replica of the Ram temple, Goyal did not deny the plan but said the design was yet to be finalised.

He said the idea was conceptualised by him to link railway stations with the history of the place.

Giving an example, he mentioned he had recently instructed that the entrance of Belagavi Railway Station in Karnataka be built like the Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat. It was in the memory of Mahatma Gandhi who had used the same station when he came to attend the All India Congress convention held in 1924, Goyal said.

"In Ayodhya, if it (railway station) is connected to the birthplace of Lord Ram which all of us are well aware of, if Mathura is connected to the Vrindavan temple if Ajmer Sharif is connected to the dargah or mosque over there and if Agra is connected to the Taj Mahal, I think its a great contribution of the Indian Railways to teach our history, our heritage and our tradition to the next generation", he said on the sidelines of a book release event here.

When asked if the design of the Ayodhya station was a replica of a temple was the same as the one conceptualised by the VHP, Goyal said, "Even if that is so, the Vishwa Hindu Prishad is a nationalist organisation and I don't see anything objectionable in it. However, we have not yet decided on that yet." — PTI