Donations totalling Rs 5,500 crore have been collected so far towards the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, the trust in charge of building the shrine said on Wednesday.

The sum is about half the Centre’s annual budget for the school midday meal scheme.

Of the money collected, Rs 3,400 crore was donated between January 15 and February 27 this year during a special drive, the Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has said.

“People are donating towards the construction of the Ram temple wholeheartedly. The donors’ devotion is so deep that they continued sending money to our accounts even when the pandemic had brought the entire country to a standstill,” Prakash Gupta, an RSS member who runs the trust’s office, told reporters in Ayodhya.

“The exact amount collected will be known after an audit, to be done soon. But there’s enough money to build a magnificent temple.”

The trust says the temple is being built entirely with public donations. It estimates that the temple itself will cost Rs 1,100 crore to build, with the rest of the funds going into supplementary infrastructure such as accommodation for pilgrims, a museum and a conference hall, among others.

The Union budget 2022-23 allocated Rs 10,234 crore as the Centre’s contribution (60 per cent) to the school midday meal programme.

“We have been receiving Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh in cash in our office every day nowadays. People also donate by cheque or through RTGS and NEFT,” Gupta said.

“The footfall of devotees has increased from 5,000 to 10,000 a day at the makeshift temple, from where the idols of Lord Ram, Sita and Lakshman will be shifted to the sanctum sanctorum of the new temple after it is completed by January 2024.”

Gupta said that besides donating towards the construction of the temple, devotees are also offering sums between Rs 40 lakh and Rs 50 lakh a month at the makeshift temple towards puja. He said that in the past, the figure used to be Rs 10 lakh to Rs 12 lakh at the original makeshift temple on the then disputed site.

The Centre, which had formed the trust in 2020 on a Supreme Court directive, has ignored Opposition allegations that extravagantly high prices were paid for the land bought in Ayodhya to benefit people linked to the RSS.