VIJAYAWADA: To minimise inconvenience to devotees visiting Sri Durga Malleswara Swami Varla Devasthanam atop the Indrakeeladri during the nine-day Dasara festival beginning on October 13, the authorities are making arrangements for five queue lines of which two are meant for those who want to have free a darshan.
The other three queue lines are meant for those who pay Rs 50, Rs 100 and Rs 250. This apart, about 1,000 restrooms are being set up at the bathing ghats on Krishna river bank for the benefit of devotees. These arrangements are being made also keeping in mind the requirement during the Krishna Pushkaram next year.
At a review meeting on the arrangements at the Sub-collector’s Office here on Tuesday, discussions also centred around security measures, traffic diversions, identification of parking lots and so on.
District collector Babu A told the officials that a decision had already been taken to allow darshan of the deity for VIPs only between 6 am and 8 am, and again between 3 pm and 4 pm.
Durga Temple executive officer Ch Narsinga Rao said that 35 lakh water sachets would be kept ready for distribution to the devotees. As many as 23 lakh laddus would be prepared. Prasadam counters would be set up at 14 places and it would be prepared at three places. As many as 800 member of the staff would be on duty on three shifts to see that nothing goes awry. Those who attended the review included irrigation minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, mayor K Sridhar, ZP chairperson Gadde Anuradha and CP Gautam Sawang.