People of all faiths working under one roof for tallest temple

div for like comment box endThe world’s tallest religious structure, which is being constructed in the India’s heritage city of Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh has Misam Imam, a Muslim as its structural head, Brad Maiden, a Christian from Australia, as its lead architect and Jagminder Singh, a Sikh, looking after a capsule elevator. The temple is expected to witness visitors from across the globe. The construction work of Lord Krishna’s temple with a height of 210 metres oveer five acres of land is going on in full swing as the ISKCON devotees want to get the entire project completed in the next five years.

With the construction cost of the temple estimating at about Rs 700 crore, last minute changes are being effected in the structural design of the skyscraper in the wake of the recent terror attacks in different countries to ensure that the tallest structure can withstand any such attack.

Senior vice-president Narsimha Dass said Pinkaton, a top US firm on security issues, has been roped in to ensure that the religious structure is not damaged by any terror strike. “Even if Boeing 747 flying at a speed of 900 km per hour crashes into the temple — like the 9/11 World Trade Centre, the structure will not collapse.”

Dass said the skyscraper is being constructed in such a way so that its life is for 1,000 years. “Generally structures raised from cement have a life span of 70 to 100 odd years. We are are using micro silica industrial waste, whose life span is at least 10 times more than that of the cement. We are also using environment-friendly Ground Granulated Blast Furnace, which we are getting from TATA Steel in Jamshedpur. To ensure quality of steel used for a longer period, we are using galvanized steel. We are also using corrosion inhibitor on steel.”

To ensure that the structure withstands natural calamities, Dass said, “Our temple will withstand over 13.6 magnitude of earthquake. Also, it can withstand wind speed of about 225 km per hour.” The area, where the temple is being constructed, had witnessed 6.8 magnitude of earthquake of in 1803

According to Dass, the height of the temple is about 700 feet and the area covered is 5,40,000 square feet. The structural design has been outsourced to a US-based company, TRC Worldwide Engineering Brentwood.

Structural design advisors are from Civil Engineering Department IIT and Sanrachna Consultants, New Delhi. The lead architects are Ingenious Studio Pvt Ltd. Quintessence Design Studio will carry out landscaping for the whole temple area of the 26 acres having wide varieties of vegetation, green pastures, elegant vistas of fruit bearing trees, flower laden creepers serenaded by bird songs, clear water lakes with lotuses and lilies and waterfalls that tumble from small artificial hillocks.

Dass said the structure is being designed in such a way that 35,000 to 50,000 people can easily visit it. For special occasions like Janamashtami, the temple can easily accommodate about five lakh people. “However, one has to walk 1.2 kms inside the structure to have darshan of four temples. Also, there will be arrangements where prasad (food) can be served to about 3,500 people in one go.”

Dass said that lifts installed in the temple will be moving eight times more than the normal speed of any elevator at eight metres per second. “At the top of the structure, one can have Brijmandal darshan of the entire place through telescopes.”