ABU DHABI, October 12, 2016 (Khaleej Times): The first Hindu temple in Abu Dhabi will come up on 20,000 square metres of land at Al Wathba. “We took delivery of the land on Monday. The temple will be built within one year,” said BR Shetty, the businessman who heads the temple coordination committee, on Monday night. “Al Wathba is just 30 minutes from Abu Dhabi City. It will be close to the highway on Abu Dhabi-Al Ain road,” Shetty, chief executive officer of NMC Healthcare and UAE Exchange, told Khaleej Times.
Inside the temple, the murthis will be of “Deities Krishna, Maheshwara, Ayyappa and more.” “The temple will have a good vrindavan (garden) and a waterfront,” Shetty added. It was during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit in August last year that the UAE Government announced its decision to allocate land for Abu Dhabi’s first ever Hindu temple. At present, there are two Hindu temples and one Sikh gurudwara in Dubai.