CHANDIGARH: The Golden Temple in Amritsar has been certified the highest visited religious place in the world by the UK-based World Book of Records (WBR), which is second only to Guinness World Records.
WBR representatives in India have handed the certificate to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee chief secretary, Dr Roop Singh on Friday.
“After recording the footfall for the past three months, we decided to certify the Golden Temple as the most visited place for the current year,” said WBR general secretary Surbhi Kaul.
The organisation does a survey every year after which rankings are given according to footfall. Apart from the Golden Temple, the Vaishno Devi temple, Sri Sai Baba Temple and Taj Mahal have won the first position this year.
About 50,000 visitors visit the Vashno Devi and Sai Baba temples daily. The Taj Mahal has a daily footfall of 20,000-25,0000. The Golden Temple, however, draws one lakh visitors daily on weekdays.
On weekends and for religious occasions, the footfall is between 1.50 lakh and two lakh.
Sources said the WBR survey was done three months ago. It was found that one lakh people across religions visited the Golden Temple daily and almost everyone had food from the langar (community kitchen).
The cleanliness and upkeep of the temple as well as the kirtan that goes on round the clock were other contributory factors.
A few months ago, a Multimedia Interpretation Centre was inaugurated in the Golden Temple Plaza basement. It was constructed by the Punjab government at a cost of `223 crore.