Mumbai: The opening of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya could lead to creation of 150,000-200,000 direct and indirect jobs in the temple town and surrounding towns and cities in the next 4-5 years, estimates by human capital management platform Betterplace show.
“That apart, a possible rise in construction activity in the region – due to expansion by hotel chains, apartment units, healthcare facilities, and other infrastructure development – could lead to addition of another 50,000-100,000 temp jobs in the region in the next few years,” said Pravin Agarwala, cofounder and group chief executive of Betterplace.
Sectors such as hotels, hospitality, tourism, food and beverages, daily essentials, personal care products, healthcare, banking, and construction will drive demand for manpower as the region is expected to turn into a hotspot for religious tourism, economists and job market experts said.
Betterplace’s estimates are based on an annual estimated footfall of 50 million people in the next few years.
Immediate job creation is estimated at between 10,000-30,000 with expected inflow of 100,000-200,000 tourists a day in the next few months.
Consumer goods companies and food service chains are increasingly strengthening their presence in the area, creating more employment opportunities, as they see Ayodhya as a branding and marketing hotspot.
“Going forward, Ayodhya will become a major pilgrimage centre and will receive millions of people every year. This will provide opportunities for creativity and creating new consumers,” said Sanjiv Mehta, former CEO of HUL.
Yeshab Giri, chief commercial officer, staffing & Randstad Technologies, at HR services firm Randstad India, said the steady and incremental inflow of tourists into the city is leading to an increased consumption demand for bottled water, snacking products, refreshment drinks, etc.
“These brands are also leveraging this opportunity to sample new products and introduce those ahead of a large audience,” Giri added.
He estimates that in the next 3-6 months, 10,000-12,000 new jobs will be created to cater to this demand alone, especially in sales, supply chain and logistics, warehousing, and packaging.
In the hospitality, travel and tourism sector, Randstad anticipates 20,000-25,000 permanent and temporary jobs to be created with the numbers increasing every year. In-demand roles include hotel staff, housekeeping, front-desk management, chefs, and multilingual tour guides, among others.
Banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector is expected to be another big recruiter in the region.
“BFSI is something we have seen creates hordes of jobs in such cases…even a small tehsil – smaller than a district – banks come up with ATMs and then set up small branches based on demand… Such things may happen, which will lead to several jobs in BFSI,” said Sachchidanand Shukla, group chief economist at L&T.
Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Bank of Baroda, said, “More jobs will be created at the blue-collar level than at the white-collar level.”
Top company officials said corporates are now including Ayodhya on their marketing map and readying to cater to a sudden boom in demand.
“The scale of growth would be higher for FMCG, but on a comparative scale, it will be sectors like hospitality, restaurants and real estate recording a spike in business going ahead from Ayodhya,” said the chairman of a leading conglomerate who requested not to be identified.
A report by global brokerage firm Jefferies on Monday said the Ram Temple is likely to have a big economic impact and could attract over 50 million tourists every year.
