The new Hindu temple in Dubai’s Jebel Ali is set to launch in early October and will be taking QR-coded bookings from September onwards, just in time for the Hindu festival of Dussehra.
Although bookings will begin in September, the temple will officially open on October 5 on the occasion of the Dussehra festival, said temple trustee Raju Shroff, according to Gulf News.
Workers are still putting finishing touches on the 70,000 square feet large temple. “We are ready to open the temple to the public on October 5 as planned. Before that, we want to educate the public about how to visit the temple and control the crowd,” said Shroff.
The temple is an extension of the six-decades-old Sindhi Guru Darbar temple in Bur Dubai, and is licensed by the Community Development Authority (CDA) of Dubai. It is located in the Corridor of Tolerance in Jebel Ali, an area which is also home to several churches and the Guru Nanak Darbar Gurudwara.
In a bid to manage traffic as well as large crowds during the Covid pandemic, it was decided that bookings would take place through QR codes.
Shroff said the temple will be open in two phases. “We will first open the place of worship on the first floor for Dussehra and the rest of the facilities will be opened in phase two by January 14 (the day of Makarsankranti).”
The first floor contains a prayer hall with 16 Hindu deities found all across India, as well as a section for the Guru Granth Sahib – the holy book of the Sikhs. Sacred places have been denoted for the nine planets, in addition to a podium for a Tulsi (basil) plant, that is considered holy in the Hindu culture.
