Ayodhya is set for its own commercial airport ahead of the elaborate laying out of the inauguration of the temple on January 22. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to open the new facility — it will be able to accommodate 300 passengers and two to three flights every hour — on December 30, three weeks before he is slated to perform the pran-pratishtha rites of the much hyped Ram temple.

Although a confirmation from the PMO was awaited, a BJP lawmaker told reporters that they had been asked to organise “maximum attendance” during the inauguration of the airport; Modi is expected to address a rally on the occasion.

Ved Prakash Gupta, BJP MLA from Ayodhya, said, “The PM will inaugurate the airport as well as the renovated railway station in Ayodhya on December 30.”

Sources in the BJP said they have been organising door-to-door campaigns to invite people to attend the PM’s public meeting. Kamlesh Srivastava, the BJP’s Ayodhya Mahanagar president, said, “We are prepared for the programme and waiting for a final word from the PMO.”

A small facility of the Indian Air Force earlier, the airport was opened for occasional landing of commercial flights in 2008. However, the Modi government conceived the idea of an international airport at Ayodhya in 2019 when the Supreme Court cleared the way for the construction of a Ram temple, rejecting the claim of the Uttar Pradesh Central Sunni Board that the area should be given to them because there stood the Babri Masjid till 1992.

“We took over the security of the airport soon after getting information two days ago that the PM may inaugurate it. We have deployed about 80 policemen there including a deputy superintendent of police, two inspectors, eight sub-inspectors and 62 constables. It may be that the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) will take over after the airport is inaugurated and regular flights started from there,” a senior police officer said in Lucknow on condition of anonymity.

Vinod Kumar, director of the airport, said, “It is named Maryada Purushottam Sri Ram International Airport. Its façade resembles that of the Ram temple in Ayodhya town. We have domes resembling the Ram temple on the front side. Currently, we are prepared for domestic flights only. It would be expanded over the next two years for international flights.”

On an inspection of the work, Sanjeev Kumar, chairman of Airport Authority of India Limited, had said, “The first phase of the Ayodhya airport would be complete and ready to receive flights before the inauguration of the Ram temple.”

Vinod Kumar, the director of the Rs 1,175 crore airport project, said the building has been erected in the first phase over an area of 6,500 sq metres on seven pillars. Each pillar indicates seven kands (books or episodes) of the Ramayana. There would be paintings related to the life of Lord Ram on the pillars and walls of the building in the Nagara style of architecture.

“It has the capacity to handle 300 passengers at a time and two to three flights per hour”, Kumar was quoted as telling the media.