Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday officially launched the foundation stone-laying ceremony for the first Hindu temple in the capital of the UAE, home to over three million people of Indian origin.

Modi witnessed the groundbreaking ceremony which was live-streamed to the Dubai Opera House where the prime minister was interacting with the Indian community, reported Times of India.

He thanked Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on behalf of 125 crore Indians for the construction of the grand temple.

"I believe this temple will not be only unique in terms of architecture and splendour, but will also give a message of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' to people across the world," said the Indian Premier.

The temple, the first to be built in Abu Dhabi, will come up on a 55,000-sq-m of land at Abu Mureikha, off the Dubai-Abu Dhabi highway. It will be hand-carved by Indian temple artisans and assembled in the UAE.

The project is being developed by Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), a socio-spiritual Hindu organisation set up in 1907 that runs more than 1,100 temples and cultural compounds around the world.

It will incorporate all aspects and features of a traditional Hindu temple as part of a fully functional, social, cultural and spiritual complex, said the TOI report.

It will replicate the BAPS temple in New Delhi and the one under construction in New Jersey.

The project, which is scheduled to be completed in 2020, will be open to people of all religious backgrounds, it added.