VIJAYAWADA: With the date of Bhavani Deeksha Mahotsavam inching closer, Vijayawada city police are making arrangements for seamless traffic and parking spaces to accommodate the vehicles of the devotees during the five days of the rituals.
The annual ritual of Bhavani Deeksha conferment will begin from November 15 to 19 at Sri Durga Malleswara Swamy Devasthanam (SDMSD) atop Indrakeeladri, while the deeksha relinquishment will start from December 25 and end on 29. Devotees will take the 41-day deeksha in the auspicious month of Karthika. According to temple officials, around 5 lakh devotees are expected to visit the temple for the conferment and more than 8 lakh devotees are expected to visit the temple during the relinquishment.
In order to avoid any untoward incidents during the Mahostavams, the temple management are making foolproof arrangements atop Indrakeeladri and downhill on the lines of Dasara festival to tackle the heavy rush of devotees. During the coordination meeting held a week ago, officials reportedly decided to arrange parking places for devotees at five locations - Punnami Ghat, Bhavani Ghat, Gandhi Municipal School ground, Gadda Bomma centre and the open space in front of VMC office.
Expressing their concern that there would be more traffic congestion in Bhavanipuram and One-town police station limits during the five days of the deeksha, traffic police are looking for suitable locations to arrange additional parking lots for the devotees. Police said devotees usually come as groups in cars, vans and buses and opined that controlling the rush and clearing traffic with less number of parking lots will be a tough job for them.
“During Dasara, we faced a lot of issues while dealing vehicular traffic and crowd management. For the Bhavani Deeksha conferment and relinquishment, more number of devotees are expected to come and each devotee will be spending a day in the city and also their vehicles,” ADCP (Traffic) T Sarkar told TNIE.The police further said that the 2 acres of land at Kummaripalem belonging to TTD will facilitate more than 300 vehicles if it is flattened and converted into a parking area.
They suggested that setting up another tonsuring hall at Bhavani ghat will reduce the crowd at both Padmavati ghat and the temple.When contacted by TNIE, Vijayawada sub-collector G Surya Sai Praveenchand assured that a decision on utilising the TTD land will be taken after discussion in the coordination meeting.