The construction of the much-delayed and much-awaited Viraat Ramayan Temple began near Kesaria in Bihar’s East Champaran district recently.

It is supposed to be the world’s largest temple dwarfing all others, including the currently under-construction Ram Temple at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.

The temple was earlier named Viraat Angkor Wat Temple and had similarities to the 12th century Angkor Wat Temple — the largest religious structure in the world according to the Guinness World Records — in Cambodia.

However, Cambodia objected to its construction in 2012 and it took over five years to establish that it was different from Angkor Wat and its name was changed to Viraat Ramayan Temple.

Spread across 120 acres, the temple complex is being built at a place where legend says Lord Ram and Goddess Sita stopped overnight while returning to Ayodhya after their marriage at Janakpur (now in Nepal).

The temple building will have an area of 3.67 lakh square feet. It will house 22 temples dedicated to various gods and goddesses and will have 12 towers with a 270-foot-high main tower.

“This temple will be 1,080 feet long and 540 feet wide. It will be much bigger than the Ram Temple that is being built at Ayodhya which is just 360 feet long and 235 feet wide with the highest tower being 135 feet,” said former IPS officer Acharya Kishore Kunal, secretary of the Mahavir Mandir Trust. He is also the chairman of the Bihar State Board of Religious Trusts.

“The temple will also house a 33-foot-high Shivalingam weighing 210 tonnes, which will have 1,000 smaller Shivalingams carved on it. It will have a diameter of 33 feet. It is being made from a 250-tonne black granite rock of Tamil Nadu’s Mahabalipuram.

“We have requested Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and road construction minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav to strengthen and widen the 10km road leading to this place so that such a heavy Shivalingam could be transported smoothly,” Kunal added.

Patna-based Mahavir Mandir Trust will do the construction of the temple at an estimated cost of Rs 500 crore. Designed like the Southeast Asian temples, the temple will have three layers, instead of floors.

The area around the temple will be developed as Janaki Nagar and will house several schools, residential quarters for monks and priests, accommodation for visitors and other facilities for the people.

Delhi-based company Suntech Infra has been engaged for piling work of the temple structure. There will be 3,102 pillars involving 1,050 tonnes of steel and 15,000 cubic meters of concrete.