Lucknow, Aug 16 (IANS): The UP Housing Board has started the process to allot land in Ayodhya to several state governments to construct their respective state guest houses and mutts for building ashrams.

In all, the Housing Board has earmarked 600-acre land on the Lucknow-Ayodhya National Highway (NH) 27 near Devkali bypass for the mega project in which township will also be developed.

In the first phase, the project will be rolled out in the next three months on 200 acres for allotment to the state governments, mutts and for group housing to private developers.

"We have received applications from six states -- Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh -- for allotment of land. We have sent a reply, asking them to visit the site in Ayodhya before allotment of land," said Neeraj Shukla, secretary, Housing Board.

"The Uttar Pradesh government will also construct its state guest house in Ayodhya," Shukla added.

In addition, around 100 mutts have also filed an application with the Housing Board. The Housing Board will adopt the lottery system to allot land to mutts as it will not be possible to grant all such requests owing to a paucity of land in Ayodhya.

In the second phase, the Housing Board will also develop its own township in Ayodhya. After construction of Ram temple began in August 2020, the demand for land in the temple town has increased.

According to the state government, investment proposals of Rs 45,402 crore were received for Ayodhya at the Global Investors Summit-23 in February this year.