February 15, 2024: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 14 inaugurated the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi. It is the first Hindu temple in the United Arab Emirates, the country which is home to about 3.6 million Indian workers.
PM Modi thanked UAE president Sheikh Mohammad Zayed Al Nahyan for making the temple a reality and said he had not only won the hearts of Indians living in the Gulf nation but also of 140 crore Indians.
Key features of BAPS Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi
Branded an architectural marvel, the temple spans 27 acre of desert land in the outskirts of Abu Dhabi, one of the largest in the Middle East. The temple is open to people of all faiths.
An initiative of the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, the institution behind several Swaminarayan temples across India and the world, the temple is a testament to India’s culture, and to its ancient skills in architecture and sculpture, the developer said.
The structure is built “in strict accordance with age-old Indian texts and derives its inspiration from a lotus motif”. It has 7 spires, which represent the 7 Emirates of the UAE.
“Our dream of building a Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi has now become a reality. Shapoorji Pallonji has played a pivotal role in partnering with us to create this lotus in the desert. We extend our gratitude to Shapoorji Pallonji for bringing to life our vision of this spiritual oasis for global harmony,” said Pranav Desai, director of BAPS.
“We, at Shapoorji Pallonji, are deeply honoured to have had the opportunity to work with BAPS and create this incredible monument that brings together art, harmony and faith. Apart from being a celebration of cultural diversity, this is a testament to our engineering expertise” said Shapoorji P Mistry, chairman, Shapoorji Pallonji Group.
Shapoorji Pallonji successfully integrated modern technology such as security, lighting systems and air-conditioning with the traditional requirements of ancient Indian architecture.
The temple complex has 7 ancillary buildings to cater to over 15,000 visitors daily. It has distinctive water features, which represent three major rivers: the Ganga, the Yamuna and the Saraswati. The main temple is constructed on a raft foundation using UAE’s largest single pour of unreinforced fly-ash concrete. Instead of iron and steel reinforcements, bamboo sticks and glass fibre were used.
The temple façade is built on this foundation, using 40,000 cubic metre of marble from Italy and 1,80,000 cubic meters of pink sandstone from Rajasthan. Thousands of artisans and volunteers intricately carved the stones in Rajasthan for BAPS. These were then put together in Abu Dhabi like a giant jig-saw puzzle.
Shapoorji Pallonji Group, which is 159 years old, has built several landmarks across the world. It has been present in the Middle East for close to 50 years, beginning with the Sultan’s Palace in Muscat in 1975. Some of its recent marquee projects in India are the Bharat Mandapam and the Kartavya Path in New Delhi, the Port Blair Airport and the Atal Tunnel in Himachal Pradesh.
(All images sourced from – baps.org)
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