Sant Ravidas Janam Asthan Mandir in Seer Goverdhan area of Varanasi will be beautified and extended on the lines of Golden Temple, Amritsar, by the Uttar Pradesh government.
“A blueprint to develop Sant Ravidas birthplace on the line of the Golden Temple has already been drawn following instructions by chief minister Yogi Adityanath. Now, the process to acquire the land required will start soon,” said Varanasi Development Authority (VDA) vice-chairman Rajesh Kumar. The project will cost around Rs 410 crore.
Over thirty acres of land is required for extension and development of the temple. It includes developing a (pond) and a big langar (community kitchen) hall with a capacity to accommodate 60,000 people together and a library equipped with literature on sant Ravidas, his preaching and philosophy and books of other subjects also.
A charity hospital, a dormitory, an art gallery and a museum will also come up as part of the extension. Two roads—one that connects sant Ravidas birthplace to the city and other that leads to NH-2—will also be widened under the project.
Tehsil administration has started identifying the land to be acquired in the vicinity of the temple to start the work in the next couple of months. In January this year, chief minister Yogi Adityanath paid a visit to the temple and offered prayers there on the occasion of sant Ravidas’s birth anniversary.
He had then announced that the pious land of sant Ravidas will be developed and beautified in a proper way.
He had instructed the officials to prepare a detailed project report in this regard. “The state government will provide funds for development of the pious land of sant Ravidas and beautification of the temple,” Yogi had said then.
Yogi has instructed UP minister Neelkanth Tiwari to ensure that the project report is prepared on time and it take shapes in the coming days. Tiwari held a meeting with the temple management committee members and apprised them of various facilities to come up as part the project.
Sant Ravidas was born in the 15th centry in Varanasi. Lakhs of his followers from Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and UP visit Sant Ravidas Janam Asthan Mandir to offer prayers on his birth anniversary every year when a big fair is organised there. Prime Minister Narendra Modi too paid a visit to the temple in February 2016.
