VARANASI: The doors of garbhgrih (sanctum sanctorum) of the Kashi Vishwanath temple will remain open for 36 hours after 'mangla aarti' on
Mahashivaratri
falling on March 8
Expecting a footfall of over 10 lakh
devotees
on the auspicious day, the temple administration has started making arrangements for crowd regulation.
Talking to TOI on Sunday, the temple's chief executive officer Vishwa Bhushan Mishra said, "Devotees will enter temple premises in four queues and get Jharokha Darshan (offering prayer by seeing deity from outside of Garbhgrih) till 11am on March 9.
No Sparsh-Darshan (offering prayer by touching Shivling) arrangements will be available in this period."
No ticketed or VIP darshan facility will be allowed on this day and the movement of queues will not be disturbed or stopped for VIP Darshan, said the CEO. Following the rejuvenation of Kashi Vishwanath Dham and its opening by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Dec 13, 2021 the temple has continued to make a record of crowding on days like New Year, Mahashivaratri and Shrawan Mondays.
On the occasion of Mahashivaratri in 2023, around 6.88 lakh devotees offered prayers at the temple and over seven lakhs entered the temple on Mondays of Shrawan month in 2022 and 2023.
As the flow of pilgrims from across the globe is increasing at
KVT
, especially after the consecration ceremony of the idol of Ram Lalla at Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the officials are expecting further increase in the footfall of pilgrims on the coming festival of Mahashivaratri.
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