Varanasi: Pilgrims thronging this holy city to offer prayers at Kashi Vishwanath Temple on the occasion of Mahashivratri on Thursday, will get an opportunity to have a glimpse of the under-construction artistic buildings of KV Dham area and assess for themselves how beautiful it would be after completion by end of August.
Especially, the pilgrims who enter through Chhattadwar (gate-4) will get this chance as they will walk up to Mandir Chowk of KV Dham before taking a turn towards the temple. Before entering the main temple, they could see many completed or under-construction structures.
After reviewing the finalisation of preparations for Mahashivratri at KVT on Tuesday, divisional commissioner Deepak Agrawal said, “Devotees queued up at Chowk side will get entry through Chhattadwar gate. They will be inside KVT via Mandir Chowk being constructed at the centre of KV Dham project area. Apart from them, the devotees entering through Bansphatak-Dhundhiraj Ganesh point will go out through a new exit point adjacent to Chhattadwar. People in both these queues will get the glimpse of many partially completed and under-construction buildings.”
“As larger space has become available near the main temple the number of participants in Mangla Aarti, which used to be around 300 till last year’s event, will go above 500 mark. The devotees will not be allowed ‘Sparsh Darshan’ (touching the Shivlinga) by entering the sanctum sanctorum of KVT on the festival day, but they will have the facility to offer Jalabhishek to Lord Vishwanath through ‘argha’ being made available at all four doors of Garbhgrih.
Regarding movement of traditional Shiv Barat in view of the on-going constructions inside Kashi Vishwanath Dham area and road between Godowlia and Maidagin, the commissioner said that this road was being improved to ensure safe movement of pilgrims standing in queues and also Shiv Barat.
“While queuing up on Maidagin and Godowlia roads to get entry in KVT through Chattadwar and and Bansphatak-Dhundhiraj Ganesh Gali points, devotees could watch live telecast of the activities taking place inside sanctum sanctorum on LED screens at many points,” he added.
Regarding security and crowd regulation exercises, SP City Vikas Chandra Tripathi said, “Security arrangements at Panchkoshi Parikrama (circumambulation) route, all ghats along river Ganga and prominent temples of lord Shiva have been finalized for the festival day.”