AN Indian pensioner who wanted to pay tribute to his late wife with a giant replica of the Taj Mahal in his back garden fears the project may never be finished because he is running out of money.

    Faizul Hasan Quadri, 80, has spent three years painstakingly building a scaled-down version of the Taj Mahal in his tiny village of Kaser Kalan in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

    To date the £110,000 (US$169,708) project has cost him the majority of his life savings. But he remains determined to press on with the building, determined to spend the rest of his days constructing the elaborate tribute to his beloved wife of 53 years Tajamulli, who died of throat cancer in 2012.

    With no children to carry on their family name Quadri decided to follow in the ancient footstep of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, who famously created the white marbled Taj Mahal as a monument of love for his wife in 1632.

    The widower has so far devoted all his finances to setting up the structure in order to build a permanent display of his love for Tajamulli.

    But now after three years of the construction, Quadri is facing severe financial challenges that are putting the future of structure in serious doubt.

    “Initially, I sold a piece of land for £60,000 and my wife’s gold and silver jewelry for £15,000 and got the mausoleum constructed with the help of a local mason,” he said.

    “But now I have to get marble studded on the monument and also to build a lush green park around it, both of which is likely to cost me another £70,000,” the widower added.

    After his wife’s death, Quadri buried Tajamulli on land he’d previously used for agriculture. He then began building the structure around her grave.

    Quadri has already told his brother to bury him by Tajamulli’s side when he dies.(SD-Agencies)