The Lord Ram temple in Ayodhya, the ultimate symbol of Hindu faith, will bring in myriads of worshippers to the town and in course of time put it in the league of other religious destinations. The potential to create a new economy is immense as structures develop to meet the demand. Can these outcomes be conjectured?

As per data reported in Indian Express, Ayodhya’ s economic size is less than 1% of that of Uttar Pradesh at around Rs 11,000 cr for FY22. The per capita income in Ayodhya was around Rs 57,000 that is lower than that of the state which was around Rs 93,000. For the country as a whole it was around Rs 1.48 lakhs. It accounted for 1.2% of UP’s population in 2011 while the urbanisation ratio was just over 14%. Per capita electricity consumption at 148 KWh was lower than state average of 291 KWh and national average of 1255 KWh in 2021-22.

However there has been a lot of focus on delivery of public services in the last few years and the ratio of LPG consumers per lakh of population was 20,236 compared with the state average of 18,309. Similarly, the length of pucca roads to 1 lakh population was higher at 181 kms relative to the state average of 147. Clearly in the run up to the great event, there has been a push given to development which has been taken on by the local authorities.

Now that the holy temple has been consecrated and opened to the public, one can see exponential development taking place to keep pace with the influx of tourists. Temples in Thirupathi and........

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