- By Soumyaroop Mukherjee
- Sat, 06 Dec 2025 03:15 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
On the 33rd anniversary of the Babri Masjid's demolition, the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF), responsible for the Supreme Court-ordered mosque project in the Ram Janambhoomi Case, announced a tentative start date for the commencement of the construction of the mosque.
The mosque will be built in Dhannipur, located 25 km from Ayodhya and the rollout for the mosque complex is anticipated to commence around April 2026. The place was handed over to the trust in August 2020 after a hotly contested and prolonged legal battle. Earlier, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court on November 9, 2019, handed over 2.77 acres of land, which was at the centre of a long legal scrutiny, to a trust for the construction of a Ram temple at the site and allotted five acres of land at a "prominent site" in Ayodhya for the mosque.
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“If all fits in place, and of course, subject to the Ayodhya Development Authority's (ADA) approval of the revised layout plan of the mosque that we hope to submit by December-end, a tentative timeline of the mosque project rollout could be around April 2026,” said Zufar Faruqi, chairman of the IICF, quoted PTI.
Despite the intense public debate and conflicting claims, which have been heightened by the political row in Murshidabad, West Bengal, the original mosque plan remains unclear. The IICF chairman said that the first mosque layout was rejected by the ADA earlier.
The ADA's approval is the key first step towards the start of the much-delayed mosque construction, but the IICF is staring at other pressing issues, including the lack of “enough land” at and around the Dhannipur site.
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“These are early days. We do wish to make use of the land allotted to us, but should there be a problem in acquiring additional land for the mosque project, the possibility of the entire project being carried out in a phased manner, but at different locations, is there,” Faruqi told PTI.
Faruqi revealed that the effective usable land at Dhannipur is significantly smaller than the original grant: "We were allotted five acres of land at Dhannipur, but due to certain technicalities, the effective area is around four acres only." He therefore suggested the possibility of expanding the project to multiple locations to accommodate all planned facilities.
However, Faruqi dismissed the theory that the mosque's location, being 25 km away from the main city, necessitated a site change for the complex, which is slated to include a 500-bed multispecialty hospital, a community kitchen, and educational institutions.
Addressing the financial aspect, Faruqi distinguished the two projects and said, "It's unfair to compare the mosque project with the Ram temple construction, which was a public-driven exercise." He conceded that even with the Ayodhya Development Authority (ADA) approval secured, the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) would still require substantial funds to move forward.