Patna, May 13 (IANS): The Indian version of Cambodia's world-famous Angkor Wat temple complex will now be built in Bihar's East Champaran district on over 50 acres of land.
"There is no land shortage in East Champaran since the Kathwalia Matth is ready to provide us more than 50 acres. People from three villages have also agreed to donate land," Acharya Kishore Kunal, secretary of the cash-rich Mahavir Mandir Trust which is building the temple, told IANS.
The trust has also revised the plan. The temple would be spread over 100 acres and cost over Rs.300 crore, said Kunal, a retired police officer. The structure would be bigger than the one in Cambodia, considered by some as the largest Hindu temple complex in the world.
Angkor Wat was built in the 12th century during Hindu king Suryavarman's rule and is today a Unesco World Heritage Site.
The proposed "Virat Angkor Wat Ram Mandir" will have idols of Radha-Krishna, Shiva-Parvati, Ganesh, Surya, Vishnu and Dashavataram -- the 10 incarnations of Vishnu, he said. It will be designed by a temple architect from Ahmedabad, Piyush Sompura.
The five-storey, 1,240 feet long, 1,136 feet wide and 270 feet tall temple will be one of the tallest structures in the world, said Sompura, who will also raise funds for the project from India and abroad.
"We will use the famous chunar stones, which Emperor Ashoka had used for his inscriptions," Sompura, whose family has been designing temples for centuries, told IANS. "Generations will feel proud."
"It will follow the architectural design of Angkor Wat but will not be an exact replica because our measurements vary," added Kunal.