The Union Government has announced a half-day for all of its employees so they can celebrate the consecration, as the countdown to the January 22 Ram Mandir inauguration in Ayodhya began on Thursday with the installation of the Lord Rama idol in the temple’s sanctum sanctorum.

All Central Government offices, Central institutions, and Central industrial establishments across India will close for a half-day until 2.30 pm in order to allow employees to take part in the festivities, according to a notice from the DoPT. Government offices and all private and public educational institutions will be covered, but not private sector offices.

Every government office and educational facility in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, and Chhattisgarh will be closed.

Public sector banks, insurance companies, financial institutions and regional rural banks across the country will also remain closed for half-day on January 22.

Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi released special commemorative stamps to mark the occasion, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) released a related notification.

It is anticipated that the consecration will end by 1:00 pm. Laxmi Kant Dixit, the head priest of the temple, will conduct the ceremony, with PM Modi serving as the principal patron.

India will commemorate the Ram Lalla on January 22 as “pran pratishtha.”