I don’t care much about religion or faith. But architecture of course is to be appreciated. A Hindu temple, Swaminarayan Mandir, located near Highway 427 and Finch Avenue West, Toronto, Canada is opened officially on July 22, 2007.
$40-million project involving more than 2,000 Indian craftsmen and about 400 volunteers from Toronto’s Hindu community worked on its construction for more than a year. It was constructed by 24,000 hand-carved pieces of Turkish limestone and Italian Carrara marble that were shipped across the ocean and assembled in Toronto.
Each of the parts were marked with a bar code to facilitate construction.
All the columns, arches and cupolas of the Mandir 
are covered in carvings of deities. The structure is constructed stone piled on stone and no steel is used. In a rare integration of modernity to the ancient architecture, the marble floor is electrically heated to make worshipping in winter a bearable experience for the barefoot devotees.
In the inauguration ceremony, Harper is quoted as saying it as a “testament to Canada’s and India’s proud traditions of pluralism.”
UPDATE Video : Premier of Ontario, McGuinty celebrates the inauguration of the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, a marvel of Indian art and architecture in located in Toronto.
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