Varanasi: The Kashi Vishwanath temple administration has stopped the sale of tickets for Sugam-Darshan, rituals and Aartis in a bid to minimise the crowd at Kashi Vishwanath Dham as well as the ticket sale counter in view of Covid-19 third wave.
After the inauguration of the KV Dham by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 13, there has been a massive rise in footfall of pilgrims from across the country.
Consequently, there has been a rsharp ise in the sale of tickets, especially for Sugam Darshan due to high demand of pilgrims who did not want to stand in queue for long.
KVT’s chief executive officer Sunil Verma said that rise in crowd at KVT led to rise in ticket seekers at a time when Covid third wave started so it was decided to stop sale of tickets to avoid gathering at the ticket centre, although online booking has not been stopped. The crowd inside KVD has also reduced, he said.
Before stopping the offline sale of tickets for Sugam Darshan, rituals and aartis in KVT, he said, the entry inside sanctum sanctorum of KVT had already been stopped a week ago in view of Covid pandemic.
Following the KVD opening by the PM the temple has been witnessing massive crowding and on January 1 a new record of footfall of devotees was set. As per police records, 3.35 lakh pilgrims entered KVT premises while district officials estimated presence of over five lakh people in and around KVD in a single day.
As compared to all past records of crowd in a single day, which ranged between 2-2.50 lakh on special occasions like Mahashivratri or Mondays of Shrawan month, the number of devotees at KVT was maximum on January 1. As per the records, the average footfall of devotees at KVT in normal days remained around 10,000 while on special occasions it has gone above 1.50 lakh to two lakhs in past years except during the two previous waves of Covid-19.
But, following the opening of KVD a massive increase in footfall of devotees was witnessed everyday following which the police introduced new traffic regulation and crowd management by restricting the vehicles including of officers of the district administration, police and VIPs between Maidagin and Godowlia crossings.
Provision of barricading at Mandir Chowk inside KVD was also made for the formation of queues of pilgrims to minimise crowding on roads.
After the inauguration of the KV Dham by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 13, there has been a massive rise in footfall of pilgrims from across the country.
Consequently, there has been a rsharp ise in the sale of tickets, especially for Sugam Darshan due to high demand of pilgrims who did not want to stand in queue for long.
KVT’s chief executive officer Sunil Verma said that rise in crowd at KVT led to rise in ticket seekers at a time when Covid third wave started so it was decided to stop sale of tickets to avoid gathering at the ticket centre, although online booking has not been stopped. The crowd inside KVD has also reduced, he said.
Before stopping the offline sale of tickets for Sugam Darshan, rituals and aartis in KVT, he said, the entry inside sanctum sanctorum of KVT had already been stopped a week ago in view of Covid pandemic.
Following the KVD opening by the PM the temple has been witnessing massive crowding and on January 1 a new record of footfall of devotees was set. As per police records, 3.35 lakh pilgrims entered KVT premises while district officials estimated presence of over five lakh people in and around KVD in a single day.
As compared to all past records of crowd in a single day, which ranged between 2-2.50 lakh on special occasions like Mahashivratri or Mondays of Shrawan month, the number of devotees at KVT was maximum on January 1. As per the records, the average footfall of devotees at KVT in normal days remained around 10,000 while on special occasions it has gone above 1.50 lakh to two lakhs in past years except during the two previous waves of Covid-19.
But, following the opening of KVD a massive increase in footfall of devotees was witnessed everyday following which the police introduced new traffic regulation and crowd management by restricting the vehicles including of officers of the district administration, police and VIPs between Maidagin and Godowlia crossings.
Provision of barricading at Mandir Chowk inside KVD was also made for the formation of queues of pilgrims to minimise crowding on roads.
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