VIJAYAWADA: With the Endowments department and Sri Durga Malleswara Swamy Varla Devasthanam authorities gearing up to celebrate the annual Dasara festivities on a grand note, Vijayawada city traffic police are finding it tough to find enough space for vehicle parking for the devotees.The Dasara festivities will be held at the Kanaka Durga temple from September 26 to October 5.
During the Dasara festival coordination meeting, Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Endowments Kottu Satyanarayana said more than 10 lakh devotees are expected to visit the temple during the festivities and asked the officials concerned to make elaborate arrangements for devotees for a hassle-free darshan.
“During the festivities, no vehicle will be allowed on Ghat Road and Kanaka Durga Nagar to make way for queue lines and temporary prasadam counters. This made things more difficult,” said a senior police official.
According to officials, as many as seven places were identified for vehicle parking. NTR district administration instructed traffic police to take control of Bhavani Ghat, Punnami Ghat, Bobburi grounds near Swathi Theatre, Sitara Grounds, open space opposite VMC office, TTD land in Kummaripalem Junction and another open place opposite PNBS to use them as parking spaces.
“We are trying to accommodate vehicles on TTD open land, but it needs to be flattened. Temple officials failed to get the works done. Had they made the land ready, we can use it to park buses, tempo vans and cars and ferry devotees to the temple using buses. But they failed to take up land works, forcing us to use the land at Bhavani Ghat. This will serve little purpose as the devotees may refuse to park their vehicles at Bhavani Ghat and walk more than a kilometre to the temple. The problem can be solved if temple authorities arrange more buses to ferry devotees to the temple,” another police official explained.