New mosque at Ayodhya to be four times bigger than Babri Masjid; 300-bed hospital, museum at new site

The Ayodhya mosque, to be built on five acres of land as mandated by the Supreme Court, will not have the stereotypical domes, minarets or arches, which marked Islamic structures in India. Instead, it will have a “cosmic” design resembling the spherical earth cushioned in space. The rectangular layout of the complex in Dhannipur village also includes a speciality hospital, community kitchen and a museum housed in a multi-storey vertical structure, as per a blueprint released on Saturday by the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) Trust.

The mosque will be able to accommodate 2,000 namazis at a time and will be four times bigger than Babri Masjid. The 300-bed hospital complex will be six times the size of the mosque. The trust plans to expand the hospital in the second phase.

The name of the mosque is yet to be decided, and it will not be named after any emperor or king, said the Indo Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) Trust in a presentation of the project, as per media reports.

"The design echoes modern architecture of mosques around the world," the IICF Trust said in a statement. The building plan on the 5-acre plot was presented by professor SM Akhtar at the IICF Trust's office in Lucknow.

"Professor Pushpesh Pant, consultant and curator for the archives and museum at the site, mentioned the need for a good museum to showcase the joint accomplishments and struggles of the Hindu and Muslim communities in India," the IICF Trust said in the statement.

"The hospital will provide state-of-the-art facilities, much needed in the nearby area and population, focusing on malnourishment in children and expectant mothers. The building will also house the trust office and publication house focusing on research and publication house of Indo Islamic cultural-literature studies," the trust said.