Team Blitz India
Located on the banks of river Saryu, the earth beneath the temple site in Ayodhya posed a technical problem in construction which was solved by the combined efforts of top academic and research institutions of the country – Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, Guwahati, Chennai, Bombay, Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) and the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI).
After the foundation-laying ceremony in 2020 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, IIT Roorkee and CBRI were entrusted the task of testing the soil so that appropriate material could be used for construction. The results of this test showed that the place had loose alluvial soil or sand. Any kind of foundation of a big structure was impossible to be made on this kind of sand.
In came the IITs and CBRI which, after several months of deliberations and virtual meetings during the lockdown, recommended removal of the entire sand from the area. So, up to 14 meters of sand across 6 acres of land was removed.
The scooped out area was then filled with 56 layers of a special kind of concrete mixture called ‘rolled compacted concrete’, to prepare a rock-like base for the foundation. This concrete was used only for the foundation and thereafter it was pink sandstone and granite which took over.