Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has laid the cornerstone for a Hindu temple in the city of Ayodhya on a site contested by Muslims. The decades-long ownership dispute sparked some of India's bloodiest communal violence.

"For many ages, many generations have worked on this constantly, tirelessly, with this one goal of Ram Temple," said Narendra Modi. "This day is the day of those many sacrifices, that resolution, that hard work."

The ceremony took place as India surpassed 1.9 million cases of COVID-19. Main roads in Ayodhya were barricaded. All shops and businesses were closed to keep crowds away. Some 3,000 paramilitary soldiers guarded the city.

Hindus celebrated the start of construction. A member of Hindu nationalist group Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Surendra Jain said "I think the task I was born for is also being completed today. My time now will be devoted to Lord Ram's work. Now the next goal is to bring Ram's rule in India."

Many Muslims also welcomed the construction of the temple. 

Syed Ahmad, member of a Muslim organization invited to the ceremony said "We are very happy that the Ram Temple is being constructed. Both Hindus and Muslims are happy that this matter, which has been causing fights between Hindus and Muslims, thanks to our Prime Minister Modi, Yogi Adityanath (Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh), this brilliant work has been done."

But some spoke against it. “Usurpation of the land by an unjust, oppressive, shameful and majority-appeasing judgment can’t change its status,” the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board said on Twitter.

"No need to be heartbroken. Situations don't last forever."

Hindus believe lord Ram was born at the site and claim Muslim Emperor Babur built a mosque on top of a temple in 1528. 

On December 6, 1992 a huge Hindu crowd converged on the mosque site to symbolically and provocatively lay the first stone of the new temple. The 200,000-strong mob broke through police cordons, first smashing three domes to rubble before reducing the rest of the historic mosque to ruins. The destruction triggered some of the worst religious riots since India's bloody partition in 1947. Ten years later a trainload of Hindu activists were burned alive as they returned from Ayodhya, sparking retaliatory riots in Gujarat state that left upwards of 1,000 people dead, again most of them Muslims.

However, in November India's highest court finally settled a decades-long, legal fight. The ruling awarded the site to Hindus, in a major victory for Modi and the BJP. Muslims were given 5 acres (2 hectares) of land to build a new mosque at a nearby site.

Wednesday's ceremony, held at a time recommended by astrologers and involving 135 "revered saints", will use soil from almost 2,000 holy sites around India and water of about 100 holy rivers. Silver bricks will be used in the foundations.

An ad of the temple was also displayed in New York City's Times Square. This after a coalition of advocacy organizations — including Muslim, human rights, anti-fascist and secular groups —asked advertisers not to display images, paid for by a Hindu group celebrating the building of the temple on disputed grounds in northern India.

(With input from agencies)